Kid Life Bad Dream
by lovergirl85
Summary: REVISED! Kae and the others have been shipped from Beacon Brecons to a cabin in the middle of nowhere. While they're there, K-Unit tries to help them deal with everything they're going through. Throw a new kid in and everything goes a little haywire.
1. Chapter 1

Kae winced as the jeep went over a small bump a little too fast and she came down hard on her butt. Jessie let out a small 'eep' of surprise and her legs and arms came undone from where she'd wrapped them tightly, trying to stay warm. Kae couldn't help but be reminded of the game 'scrambled eggs' you played on the trampoline. She put a hand on the side of the jeep to steady herself.

"The entire British freaking government at their disposal and they couldn't find a closed in vehicle for us to ride in?" She grumbled, pulling her coat closer and hunching more into herself.

"Oh, shut it. It's not like the American government could do any better," James snapped. Kae glowered at him.

"Actually, they probably could. But I wouldn't know, I've never gotten into a situation like this with my government," she snarled at her boyfriend. Normally, any fighting about their respective governments was mild or light-hearted, but the ride in the cold air with no stops left them all cranky and at each other's throats. Not even Jessie and Alex were talking and those two were the poster couple for sappy.

"Shut it, the both of you," Jessie snapped. "Nobody wants to hear it, okay?" And because nobody yelled at Jessie and got away with it, Kae and James fell silent, sending each other death glares and scooting further into their corners to get away from the other.

When they finally reached the cabin, night and snow was falling hard and the wind blowing violently, promising a blizzard and the teens were huddling together for warmth. There was only room for five, counting the driver, in cab of the jeep, so even though the soldiers had offered to sit in the back, the six of them wanted to stay together and instead crowded into the bed of the jeep.

"Okay, you guys, everybody out," Wolf said loudly, trying to rouse the teens from their half-frozen state. He was swearing mentally at MI6. Why couldn't they have found a van or something? The other three were frowning and scowling as well as they got out of the vehicle.

"Oy, you!" Wolf barked at the driver. "Make yourself useful and carry the bags inside." The driver looked ready to protest but a well-placed glare from all four soldiers had him obeying quickly. One didn't disobey when three SAS soldiers and a spy were glaring at you like that. Not if you wanted to live. Even if, technically, they couldn't actually hurt you.

Eagle picked up Kae, Snake picked up Jessie, Wolf slung Tom and Alex over his shoulders, because neither of them could really protest, and Fox slung James and Luke over his shoulders, because they couldn't protest either. It was some of the quietest the teens had ever been…aside from asleep. Eagle was humming under his breath and Wolf snarled.

"Eagle, if you start 'One Million Bottles' again, I'm going to _shoot_ you in the balls."

"I's c-c-cold," Kae shivered. Eagle sighed. Really, the teens could be such trouble. They probably all could've squeezed into the cab if they'd really tried. The soldiers had even threatened to shove them in there and probably would have if it hadn't involved dragging them out of the bed of the jeep and getting them to stay in the cab and if the operative assigned to their case hadn't shown up and told them to get their arses into the car before climbing into the driver's seat.

"We told you to ride in the cab," Eagle chastised, climbing up the porch stairs and opened the door, releasing Kae for just a moment to carry her in. Kae shuddered as she was engulfed in warm air and Eagle was grateful that someone had had the foresight to prepare the cabin ahead of time. He set her down on the couch and then left the cabin, helping the driver carry their bags in. By the time he got in, the rest of the teens were sitting on the couch as well, no longer leaning against each other for necessity but total support and comfort.

"It's not much," the operative said. "But it's got the basics and more than enough bedrooms, I think." Wolf nodded, dropping the last of the snow covered bags on the floor. "The cupboards are stocked with enough food to last you about a month. Someone will be out on the 12th of February to drop some more supplies off."

"What about neighbors?" Fox asked. He wanted to know just how close they were to any other people and how far the teens could go when everyone started getting on everybody's nerves. And with bundles of energy like Kae and Tom around, it was going to happen quickly as soon as they acclimated to the new environment.

"Nobody around for miles," the operative promised. "An old abandoned hunters cabin about six miles that way-" he gestured east "-but other than that, nothing to worry about."

"And medical supplies?" Snake asked, over from his position by the teens, slapping their cheeks and wrapping them in blankets he'd sent Eagle to find.

"Under the kitchen sink," the operative said. "The TV's got crappy reception, but you'll get a decent football game."

"How do you know?" Eagle asked suspiciously. The operative smiled humorlessly.

"It's my cabin you're using, mate," he told them. "I bring my family out here sometimes. Obviously that won't happen until you lot are gone, so take care of it." He paused. "And take care of the kids. They look like shit." Before anyone could say anything, he was gone in the snow storm. Eagle stomped to the living room, glowering.

"'Take care of the kids,'" he muttered. "That's all we've been doing!"

"Eagle, why don't you go start something in kitchen?" Snake suggested. "Soup or something like that. We need to get them warmed up. Wolf, go check the thermostat and make sure it's cranked up."

"C-can we go t' sleep?" Tom asked plaintively, trying to focus on Snake.

"As soon as you get something to eat and have a shower," he answered. "Fox, you might wanna go see if the beds are made up." The former SAS agent nodded and left the room as Snake continued to check the teens over.

"I've got soup," Eagle announced, coming in a few minutes later. "Well…it's on the stove. Should we try and get them to move?"

"Yeah," Snake nodded. "Okay, up you get." He began pulling them to their feet. They stumbled blearily to their feet and followed Eagle to the kitchen and sat down at the table.

"We're not feeding you, so you're going to actually have to move if you want to eat," Eagle informed them. There was another moment of utter stillness before they started eating slowly, color returning to their cheeks as they started getting warmed up.

"Where are we? Or are we not allowed to know?" Luke asked after about ten minutes of silence except for their eating. "Thank you for the soup, by the way."

"Can't tell you," Snake shook his head. "But we're not in Wales anymore." He nodded and returned his attention to his soup.

"Two bathrooms," Wolf informed them all, entering the room, Fox following him. "Adults get one, teens get the other. Except for tonight. As soon as you're done eating, you're taking a shower and going straight to bed."

"The beds are all made up and the heat's up, so you shouldn't be cold," Fox continued, leaning against the counter. "If you are, though, come get one of us and we'll try and figure out what's wrong."

"Hypothermia," Kae muttered.

"Shut it, you," Snake said mildly, checking and seeing that they were mostly finished. "Last time I checked, I was the doctor. Now, by virtue of being the only girls, Kae and Jessie get first shower." Kae and Jessie stood instantly, heading towards the separate showers.

"When you're done, Fox will show you your room," Wolf told them and they stopped walking so they could listen better. "Tomorrow, unless something is seriously wrong, you're staying in bed until we say so." None of the teens looked like they were objecting.

"Define 'seriously,'" Tom said, starting to regain a bit of his humor, despite the fact he looked exhausted.

"You'd better be bleeding, dying or dead."

"I think that last one will be a little hard to inform you of," Kae countered, never one to resist needling Wolf. Especially since he'd been brutal during their Spanish lessons. Granted, she was getting better, but still…she didn't think it was necessary for one to have to conjugate the same verb fifty times.

"Well, hopefully, you'll be able to inform us of the second one before it gets to the last one. Go take a shower or let someone else have it." Kae and Jessie left quickly.

"How long do you think we'll be here?" Jessie's whisper floated across the room and she heard Kae roll over to face her, even if they couldn't see each other. To their surprise and disappointment, they hadn't immediately dropped off to sleep and as far as they could tell, it was nearing midnight.

Their bedroom was small, with twin beds crammed into the opposite walls with a nightstand between them. The dressers were built into the bed and there was a small, unfinished closet that they had shoved their bags into. Personal items were stacked neatly on the top of the nightstand and into the drawers of the nightstand, though Jessie suspected that that would change quickly. However, after it became apparent that neither of them was falling asleep, they'd gotten up and began organizing their room.

"I dunno," Kae whispered. "Hopefully not as long as we were at Brecon Beacons." Jessie hummed in agreement. "Quite personally, I would love to find out what a school year in England is like." Jessie giggled slightly.

"I guess that's been a tad bit hard, hasn't it? What with not having a proper school year and all," she replied and heard Kae give a quiet huff of laughter.

"Just a little bit," she answered. Jessie pulled her quilt up to her chin, looking at where she guessed Kae's face would be if she could see her.

"Do you think you might stay in England when you become of age?" She asked. Kae was silent for a long time. So long Jessie thought she'd fallen asleep.

"I don't know," she finally answered, choosing her words carefully. "When I got here, it was with the attitude of surviving until I was eighteen and then hopping the first plane back to the States, but obviously things have changed. Now I'm not sure."

"If you don't," Jessie said. "You need to visit."

"I will. Somebody's got to annoy the life outta you." Jessie chuckled in amusement, but it struck her as upsetting that that was how Kae viewed herself.

"Luke, do the words 'cruel and unusual punishment' mean anything to you?" James ground out, pulling his pillow over his head.

"No, why?"

"_Stop humming!"_

"You don't like the Hallelujah chorus?" Luke's voice was entirely too innocent to make James regret throwing his pillow at him. He was satisfied by the _"whump"_ and the groan he got from the other boy.

"NO!"

As opposed to the rest of the teens, Alex and Tom were sleeping peacefully. Or at least trying to. The walls were thin enough that normal voices could be heard perfectly through them and they were listening to James and Luke argue.

"I think this could be considered an act of justifiable retribution," Tom told his friend. "No way would they kill us for killing them. They're practically a jury of our peers." Alex groaned and pulled his pillow over his head. Why weren't they _asleep?_

"Then again, if we wait long enough, Wolf will come kill them and we'll be completely free of the blame," Tom mused. Alex silently agreed, but he was still weighing the pros and cons of the situation when the two of them fell silent. A moment later, they knew why.

They could hear one of the soldiers muttering something under their breath angrily as they stomped down the hall. Both boys hastily pretended to be asleep, but the soldier apparently was expecting this as he simply raised his voice outside both doors, not even going to try and find out which room was making the racket.

"If you lot don't cut it out and go to sleep, we'll throw you outside without a blanket!" The speaker, sounding aggrieved, was identified as Snake, who apparently had limits, no matter who his patients were.

Alex was finally able to drift off to sleep as the cabin stayed mercifully silent.

****

Okay, so that only took forever and five days to write (and no, I'm not exaggerating.) I actually finished this May 18th, but I suspect it'll still be a while before I can actually post it. So, theoretically, by the time I'm able to post this, I _should_ have the second chapter ready to go or at least well underway.

I'll more or less be following the original plotline…(the spring, Yassen being alive, Wesley, etc…)…but it'll be bit more serious, possibly a little darker and hopefully the British characters will sound more like Britons and not Americans. Oh, and I may copy-and-paste a couple of sections just because I like them. Props to you if you can pick them out.

Hint: there's none in this chapter.

Oh, yeah. I don't own Alex Rider or any of the characters save Kae, Jessie, Luke and James. And Wesley, when he shows up.

So I have a couple of questions. Any answers you can give me will be greatly appreciated. Some relate to the story and some are my own personal curiosity.

Do you have closed borders between England, Wales, Northern Ireland, etc.?

What is 'flies in the gravy?' (I think I have that right, I'm not sure though.)

Note: I got the question about flies in the gravy from a book about the origin of the English language and it was talking about the differences between American English and British English and that one happened to be mentioned.

What are some major soccer (or football to you) teams?

Is tea really the preferred drink? (I mean, is it like coffee is to Americans?)

And what do you think of the movie "Tormented"?

Okay…anyway, so thank you so much for being patient with me!


	2. Nightmares

The nightmares were pretty much commonplace now. Wolf couldn't count the number of times he or one of the others or all of them had woken up in the middle of night in a panic because of a yell or a cry or scream. They'd always jolted awake, ready to face the enemy…only to find that the enemy was in the children's minds and not something tangible. They wished they were, though. They wished the dreams were something that could be touched and shot and then erased from existence, never to bother anyone again.

It always got worse when they changed locations. They'd started in the camp and then got worse in the hospital. After a few days there, they receded a bit until they were moved back to camp and then they went up in intensity again. This wasn't any different.

"'M not happy…I'm not, I'm not…" Jessie twisted on her bed, her fists gripping her quilt tightly. "Let me go, _please!"_

_The daffodils were everywhere. She was pressed up against the rock, her wrists still tied in front of her while the soldier paced, ignoring her words._

"_Why aren't you happy?" He muttered, slapping his thighs in agitation. Jessie didn't answer, wanting to be invisible and just have the man forget about her. She glanced around quickly, hoping to see someone emerge from the trees. She felt her stomach drop, as it did every time, when nobody did and she wanted to start crying in frustration. Why wasn't anyone coming? They weren't supposed to leave each other behind!_

"_Jessie." The voice was soft, so soft, she wasn't sure she'd heard it. Jessie whimpered as the man knelt down in front of her, gently caressing her face. Help me, help me, help me, please._

"_Jessie…" Her name flowed from his mouth, except it didn't sound right, it didn't sound natural. Make it stop, please, make it stop…she tried to draw back from the gentle fingers._

"_Jessie." His voice was more insistent, and his calloused fingers were tugging her chin to look up at him. Jessie started crying. Someone please help me._

"_I'm not happy," she repeated desperately. "Please, just let me go."_

"_Jessie!" Why was he shouting at her? She was right in front of him! Jessie tried to pull back, whimpering and squeezing her eyes shut tightly, feeling the tears leak even more freely from beneath her eyelids._

"_Stop it," she pleaded in a whisper. "Please, just stop it." Somebody help me._

"_JESSIE!"_

Jessie snapped awake with a jerk, drawing in a quick gasp and twisted, trying to get her bearings. A man was kneeling next to her bed, a concerned look on his face. She gave a strangled cry, not recognizing him and scrambled back until her back pressed up against the wall, her hands already searching for the nearest weapon. The man draw back quickly, holding his hands up in front of him, trying to calm her down.

"Whoa, Jessie," he said. "It's me. It's Snake." Jessie blinked a few times, trying to clear her vision and pull her mind from sleep.

"Snake?" She repeated, uncertainly, blinking to focus. The man nodded and she recognized him. Her hands abruptly went to her eyes, rubbing at them furiously.

"Are you all right?" He asked, reaching forward slowly and putting a hand on her shoulder. Jessie nodded, trying to stop a sniffle. "Do you want to talk about it?" She shook her head, unsuccessful in her endeavor, and tried to at least stop the tears, only to fail at that, as well.

"Okay," he said. He glanced over at the other bed, where Kae was sleeping…not peacefully, but thankfully still sleeping. "Let's go out to the kitchen so we don't wake her up." Jessie slipped out of the bed and padded silently after him.

When she got to the kitchen, she wasn't sure whether or not to be surprised to already see Tom and Fox sitting at the table, mugs of tea in front of them. They weren't talking, but there didn't seem to be any need to be. Jessie slid into the seat next to Tom, accepting the mug that Snake handed her gratefully. Fox nodded at her and Jessie gave a tentative half smile, pulling her feet up on the chair and wrapping her arms around them. A quick glance at the clock revealed it to be around two-thirty.

Jessie gave it another two hours before all six of them were out in the kitchen.

"This is gone on far too long," Snake murmured. It was four in the morning and all six teens were seated around the table, in various states of wake with a mug of tea in front of them. Kae had been very put-out when they told her there was no coffee and instead had dumped about seven spoonfuls of sugar in her tea.

"Her adding that much sugar?" Eagle asked. "I agree. It needs to stop." The soldiers were in the living room, talking quietly (or not so quietly in some cases coughEaglecough). Kae had been the last one to wake, only a few minutes ago.

"Shut up, Eagle. I'm talking about their nightmares," Snake interrupted.

"Actually, Eagle's got a point," Fox said, momentarily sidetracked. "She can drink straight coffee, but not tea?"

"She was raised on coffee," Snake told him. "Now, back on subject…" He trailed off pointedly.

"Sorry." Fox leaned around the corner to check on them. They were playing absently with their mugs, not talking.

"I don't think they've slept all the way through a night since they started having them," Wolf jumped in.

"Which, when you think about it, explains their short tempers. They haven't been getting enough sleep," Snake frowned. "I talked to the therapist back at camp and he wouldn't tell me anything about their sessions except that none of them would talk…or if they did, it would be completely unrelated about what they were supposed to be talking about."

"So in other words, total denial and complete avoidance?" Wolf asked.

"Yeah, pretty much," Snake answered. Wolf sighed, pinching his nose.

"Great," he muttered. "So what are we supposed to do?"

"Counsel them?" Eagle suggested. "Or, I dunno, let them know we're here if they want to talk…"

"Touchy-feely crap?" Wolf snorted. "Do you really think they'll want to talk to us?" Snake was silent, contemplating this and turning the idea over in his head, staring hard at the floor while his two teammates bickered quietly. He'd taken a psychology course for the year he'd been at college before joining the army and he was trying to examine it from every possible angle. Fox was silent, letting him think. Finally he came to a conclusion and looked up.

"Both of you, shut it," he said tiredly. "Look, we at least make the offer. I'll do it. But just knowing that there's someone they can talk to that's not a stranger should help relieve a little bit of the stress. Like it or not, they're still kids and they still want to talk to someone. We probably seem very unapproachable."

"I agree," Eagle said sagely. "Which is why Wolf should make the offer." He held his hands up in a placating gesture at the snarl the other man sent him. "Don't look at me like that! If Snake makes the offer and they decide to take him up on it, he'll be the only one they go to. But if Wolf makes the offer, and you know, we're there with him, theoretically they may come to us equally."

"Eagle, that's probably the smartest thing you've said all night," Fox told him. Wolf switched his glare to him. "What?" The question was posed innocently. "You don't have to do it right now."

"Why don't we send them back to bed," Snake suggested. "They always sleep better after the first round and they'll sleep late now. We can talk to them tomorrow."

"And we can continue this after they're asleep," Wolf muttered. He was _not_ looking forward to this. The other three nodded in agreement and they went to herd the teens back to bed.

****

Voila! I give you chapter two! You know, K-unit is kind of an equal share sort of thing…or something. I mean, Wolf is the leader, but the others get a lot of input. I dunno, do you guys write them that way? Or see them that way?

So anyway, tell me what you think! And since school is ending this means I get lots of time to work on this! *smiles*

Thank you, everyone, for your reviews. If you have any suggestions please feel free to tell. It's moving kind of slow right now and I'm trying to figure out a way to pick up the pace without


	3. Making the Offer

"You know that feeling you get, when you wake up and you _know_ you're going to have a great day?" James mumbled. It was morning, late morning judging by the sun, and he and Luke were just pulling themselves out of bed and searching around blindly for their duffels. Luke paused in his task to look at James.

"No," he deadpanned and turned back to looking for the elusive baggage.

"Good. Because I don't have it," James muttered. Luke hummed noncommittally and finally located the bag under his bed. He yanked it out and unzipped it only to discover…James' boxers at the top of the pile of clothes. He sighed.

"Here, this is yours," he said, turning to James and holding the bag out. James took with a mumble of thanks and began rooting through it. Luke yawned and decided to wait until later to look for his bag and wandered out the kitchen. The clock showed it was close to eleven and Luke sighed in contentment. He hadn't slept that late in a long time.

"Hey, maggot. You know where the others are?" Eagle asked, walking into the room. Luke smiled a bit. They hardly ever called them maggots anymore and it was only when they were feeling especially concerned.

"Probably still sleeping," Luke yawned, no longer smiling and began searching the cabinets for a mug. "James is awake, but I don't know if he'll be coming out anytime soon." He turned to face the soldier. "Why?" Eagle shrugged, looking vaguely uncomfortable.

"No reason," he replied. "Just…when you all do turn up, we want to talk to you." With that, he turned and marched back to the living room. Luke could hear the beginnings of a football game and he returned to his search for a mug.

A few minutes later, James wandered into the kitchen and flopped down at the table just as Luke found the cabinet that held the mugs. He looked over at James, cocking his brows in a silent inquiry. James nodded and dropped his head on the table.

"Ya know," Luke said conversationally as he put the tea kettle on. "You don't look so good." James didn't even bother to raise his head. He simply raised his hand and stuck up his middle finger. Luke leaned against the counter, an amused smile playing at his lips.

"You don't look any better," James groaned into the tabletop.

"No, but I certainly behave better," Luke snorted. "Honestly, what would Kae say?"

"That she agrees with me whole-heartedly and that you need to shut up?"

"Besides that."

"You really wanna get into that?" James raised his head enough to stare at Luke in disbelief. Luke paused.

"No, no, I don't actually. Sugar?"

Alex was the next to emerge. He hadn't bothered to get dress or do anything to even remotely tame his appearance. His hair stuck up at all angles and he walked with a slight list to one side that caused him to occasionally stumble into walls. It was almost endearing if one ignored the way his eyes kept sweeping over everything and made you feel like you just committed the worst crime in the history of the planet.

"Good morning, sunshine," James yawned. Alex grunted in response and flopped down at the table.

"Is Tom up?" Luke asked, taking a sip of his tea. Alex made a half-shrugging motion and shook his head. Luke took it to mean that Tom was awake, but had no intention of getting out of bed anytime soon.

"The soldiers said they want to talk to us when we're all up," Luke informed him. Alex frowned, getting up to look for cereal.

"Why?" Luke shrugged.

"Don't know. It sounded kind of important, though. They wanted to talk to us all at once." James snorted.

"You do realize that they hardly ever try and make individual conversation with us, don't you?" Luke glared at him.

"And you realize that they hardly ever try to talk to us while we're in the same group, don't you?" He countered.

"Why don't we just agree that they hardly ever talk to us," Alex said before the inevitable bickering could begin. His tone made it rather clear that it was an order and not a suggestion. The fact that they hardly ever talked to the teens was hardly true, but if anyone could find something to argue about, true or not, it was James and Luke. The two of them had grown fairly close, despite their constant bickering. Alex was convinced it was like James and Kae, except he doubted it would end up the same way. Tom had told him that he had it on good authority that Luke liked Kelsey Blake back at school.

They both paused and looked at him before simply continuing to fight. Alex sighed, pulling out a bowl and pouring some cereal. He began eating the cereal, causing another momentary lapse in the fighting as both James and Luke stared at him.

"You eat cereal _dry?"_ James demanded. His tone suggested that he'd never heard of such a thing and Alex had also grown three heads while he was at it.

"Yeah. It gets soggy otherwise," Alex said.

"That's really weird…" Luke said in amazement, shaking his head. Alex snorted.

"Oh, look. Something you agree on," he said dryly. Jessie came in, yawning, and combing her hair of out her face. She had gotten dressed, at the very least, in a long jean skirt and green sweater. Alex straightened up almost instantly, unsure of his footing with his girlfriend. Jessie gave him a shy smile, just as unsure as him. Alex smiled at her and she relaxed instantly, going over and giving him a peck on the cheek after checking that the soldiers weren't peeking around the corner or something.

"Morning, Jess," Luke greeted. Jessie smiled at him.

"Morning, Luke," she returned.

"Tea?"

"Please." She slid into a seat at the table. Before, she might've asked how everyone slept. Now, there wasn't any need. None of them slept well at all last night.

A few minutes later, Luke set the mug down in front of her and James held his out to him, putting on his most pitiful face that Luke promptly ignored. Mostly because it was still halfway full.

There was silence in the kitchen and soon Kae and Tom were stumbling out. Neither of them had gotten dressed and they looked like death warmed up. Kae slumped down at the table next to James, putting her head on his shoulder and looking ready to drop off again. Tom leaned against the counter, stealing Alex's tea from him and taking a large gulp. Alex grabbed his mug and shoved his uneaten bowl of cereal at the dark-haired boy instead.

"You suck. It's all soggy," Tom yawned, grabbing the spoon and began eating. Alex rolled his eyes.

"No it's not. Stop complaining." Tom huffed, flicking a bit of cereal at the teen. Alex narrowed his eyes, debating whether or not trying to take back to the cereal would be worth the mess afterwards to clean up. Tom guessed what he was thinking and grabbed the bowl, dancing backwards out of reach.

"Nuh-uh," he said. "My cereal." Alex rolled his eyes and took another sip of tea.

"What's wrong with her?" Tom asked, nodding his head towards Kae. James shrugged the shoulder she wasn't leaning on.

"Dunno," he answered. He began poking her. "Kae…hey, Kae!"

"Nnngh," she moaned, slapping his hand away. She lifted her head enough to glare at him. "If there is no coffee, don't bother me."

"Not a morning person, huh?" James said sympathetically. Except he totally didn't mean and he knew good and well that she wasn't a morning person.

"COFFEE!"

"Shut up, the lot of you," Eagle grumbled, coming in. "Are you all here? Good. WOLF!" A minute later, a scowling Wolf was more or less dragged in by Snake and Fox. Kae blinked at them blearily before returning her attention (quietly, thank goodness) to bemoaning the lack of coffee.

"Luke mentioned you wanted to talk to us," Alex commented idly. "Is the world ending?"

"And I didn't cause it? No, it's not ending," Kae muttered from her position. "Moron."

"Oh, shut it."

"Both of you," Eagle said warningly.

"So…uh…the thing is," Wolf started, clearing his throat and standing rigidly. Snake poked him, hissing something in his ear. Wolf glowered and whispered something back.

"You're gay for each other? We already knew that," Tom piped up. He was instantly hit with four death glares and he edged a little closer to Alex. His best mate would protect him…right?

"Forget it," Wolf muttered, storming out of the rooming. Fox sighed and followed and a few minutes later he came back in. "We…just…wanted to let…you know…that if ."

He was met with six blank stares.

"Uh…" Jessie frowned. "You said something about talking?"

"What Wolf is trying to say," Snake started, then froze suddenly aware of what he was about to say.

"See? Not so easy is it?" Wolf muttered. Snake cleared his throat and tensed up, looking more like a soldier than the welcoming figure he was trying to be. Wolf, enjoying retaliation way to much, reached over and poked him, trying to get him to relax.

"If you wanted to talk…about things…you…could-"

"Talk to us," Fox finished, rolling his eyes. Really, they were how old again? "You don't have to, but if you want to, we just wanted you to know we're here to listen." Comprehension replaced confusion and then there was a moment of shuffling.

"Um…thanks," Luke said. "We…appreciate the offer…"

"Right," Wolf said, nodding and turned, marching out of the room. His team followed and there was silence for a few minutes after they left.

"That was…" Jessie started, then paused, trying to come up with a word to describe it.

"Unexpected?" James offered.

"Awkward?" Alex threw in. She giggled.

"Both of those things," she admitted. "I was going for more…nice…"

"Ah," Tom nodded in understanding. "I guess." Jessie huffed at him.

"Well, nobody else has really offered, you know. It's nice to know that not all people associated with government are-"

"Douche bags," Kae filled in. She knew exactly what Jessie wanted to say, but the redhead would probably choose something nicer than that. Jessie didn't have a mean bone in her body.

"I suppose," Tom said musingly. Then he brightened. "Wanna go try and take the TV from them?"

"You're gonna lose," Alex warned him, but he followed his friend anyway. Those remaining looked at Kae in surprise.

"You're not going?" James asked.

"Even that stupid camp had coffee…" She moaned.

KLBDKLBDKLBDKLBD

Ta-daa! Chapter 3! Thank you all for reviewing. It makes me happy


	4. Trust Issues

"Something the matter, Tom?" James asked idly. Tom slumped into the room and flopped down on Luke's bed and top of Luke, who gave an indignant squawk, jostling the other boy until he shifted to make room for him. James flipped through the book he had taken from the living room idly. Since the soldiers had laid claim to the only TV in the cabin, the teens who weren't avid readers (i.e. someone who wasn't Jessie or Luke) had to either come up with some other way to entertain themselves or become avid readers.

"They took away my cartoons," Tom answered after a long silence, near the end of which James had decided to ignore him. He sounded rather depressed, causing James to glance up before flicking his eyes back to the book.

"We can get cartoons out here?" James sounded only a little bit interested, which was all Tom needed to continue.

"Yes! It's Saturday, which means we get Saturday morning cartoons and they took them _awaaaay!"_ This last bit was said in a wail, conveying just how horrible a crime this actually was.

"Mm." James turned the page lazily, his eyes glazing over. Seriously, could this book get any more boring? "Sorry to hear that." His eyes drifted down the page before they widened fractionally. Whoa…did they just…? That was _hot._

"No, you're not," Tom accused sulkily, crossing his arms and glaring balefully at James from the other bed as James began to flip through the book with more interest. Maybe he should read more. If he'd known they actually put stuff like that in books, he'd have picked one up a _long_ time ago. Tom began looking curious as to what James was reading and leaned over the gap, his body creating a bridge between beds, and tried to read over his shoulder.

"Hey, what are you reading?" Tom asked, craning his neck as far as it would go. James turned the pages away from him.

"Nothing. Go away," he answered, trying to shove him away. This simply made Tom more curious and he began shifting more, his foot accidentally kicking Luke.

"Ow!" Luke turned his body so he was parallel to the wall and began shoving Tom's feet.

"Sorry," Tom apologized, still reaching for the book. He turned his full attention back to James. "Gimme! I wanna see!"

"No! Stop it!"

"Tom! That was my stomach! James, give him the stupid book!"

"No! Make him leave me alone!"

"Me? What am I supposed to do?"

"Lemme see the book!" At this point, Luke gave Tom's legs a particularly hard shove and Tom found himself launched onto James' bed and on top of the other boy. James let out a yelp as Tom began flailing, trying to untangle himself and the book went flying and landed face-down in front of the open door.

"Hey, what's this?" All three boys froze, looking like deer in the headlights, though two of them didn't actually know what was in the book. Kae leaned down, casting them all a curious look, and picked up the book, turning it over. She skimmed the page before freezing slightly. She gave them a quick glance, her cheeks coloring slightly and she turned the page, her cheeks coloring more.

"Um…you read this?" Her green eyes pierced all of them and Luke and Tom found themselves shaking their heads, vehemently denying anything at all to do with the book. Tom scrambled back to Luke's bed. She turned to her boyfriend.

"James?" She inquired, shutting the book quickly. "Is this yours?" James began shaking his head, sputtering at the same time.

"Um, no, it's not mine, I mean, it is, I didn't actually know what was in it, I was just…uh…perusing the…contents…and, uh, I mean, it was a completely-"

"Right," Kae said slowly. She set it down on the table just inside the door. "Well, um, I'll leave you to it." She backed out hastily and they heard her walking quickly down the hall to her room and the door shut with a snap. The three of them stared at the empty doorway for a moment before turning to look at each other.

A minute later Alex appeared in the doorway and looked at them, raising a brow.

"Why does Kae look like one of you dropped your pants in front of her?" He asked mildly. None of them answered and he looked from one to the other. Finally, Luke gestured wordlessly to the table and Alex looked down at the book. He picked it up and began flipping through it. He paused about half-way through and read the page quickly before looking back at the three of them.

"You guys read this? That's gross."

"What?" Luke yelped. "No! I don't even know what that is! Ask James!" Alex looked at James.

"I was skimming through it," James defended. "And then Tom wanted to see and the book got knocked out of my hand and Kae picked it up and…you know the story from there."

"Well, that's embarrassing for you," Alex said blandly. "If I can make a suggestion…put the book back on the bookshelf, otherwise Kae will start thinking she's got a pervert for a boyfriend." He dropped the book back on the table and turned to leave, pausing long enough to turn around and say: "You do realize that this was a book written for women, right? That it's a romance novel?" And then he was gone, James swearing violently. It didn't help that Tom and Luke started laughing less than a minute later, Alex's words finally processing.

James threw his pillow at them.

Alex wandered into the kitchen. It was nearing late afternoon and he was starting to get hungry. He hadn't eaten a lot that morning, but it hadn't bothered him before. He doubted the soldiers would be nearly as accommodating as they had been the night before when they were all half-frozen. He strongly suspected the teens would be left to dinner _and_ dishes. That is, if they all sat down together for a proper meal, something else he was doubting would happen.

He began sifting through the pantries, finding basic food items like bread and peanut butter, but he was pleasantly surprised to see boxes of pasta and small spices jars. There was instant rice and macaroni and cheese. It was stocked with what you see in a normal kitchen, except Alex noticed that whoever had been put in charge of getting supplies together leaned much more favorably towards fruits than snack foods and decided that the person had been a mother or a health teacher.

He moved over to the fridge and pulled it over. The largest shelf on the door was filled with gallons of milk and the fridge was stock piled more fruits and vegetables with yogurt. Alex began shoving them aside and sighed when nothing more surgary than the sugar-free yogurt was forthcoming. He shut the fridge and began exploring further, quickly locating the pots, pans and cutlery.

"Hey, Cub." Alex turned to see Ben leaning against the doorway, regarding him curiously. "What are you up to?" Alex shrugged, leaning against the counter, mirroring Ben's relaxed demeanor. Neither of them were really relaxed, though, and they regarded each other warily. Alex hadn't seen Ben since the mission with the Australian SAS and they hadn't really had much of a chance to talk at Brecon Beacons.

"Exploring," he said baldly. Ben's mouth twitched upwards.

"Find anything exciting?"

"No." Ben cocked his head to the side.

"Well, aren't we chatty." His tone was light and teasing and Alex wasn't sure how to respond to that and regarded him for a moment.

"I'm never chatty," he finally answered. "How long will we be out here?" Ben shrugged and began his own exploration of the kitchen. Alex turned to watch him, hoisting himself up on the counter.

"So, what've you been up to?" Ben asked, his reaction similar to Alex's in his exploration of the fridge.

"Oh, you know, the usual. SCORPIA attacking my school, sending a group of students and me to Brecon Beacons, getting tracked down by SCORPIA operatives, nearly getting killed by said operatives…"

"I meant before all that." Ben's voice was dry.

"Oh." Alex's voice was blank. Ben frowned. He'd noticed that the last time he'd seen the kid, though he'd been a little more forthcoming with his emotions then. He wondered what, exactly, had taken place between now and then. Besides that which was aforementioned.

"So…come on. What've you been doing? Saving the world again?" He kept his tone light, hoping to make Alex relax, but his words seem to the have the wrong effect.

"You could say that." Alex hopped off the counter and headed for the doorway. He brushed past Ben and disappeared down the hall, leaving Ben to try to figure what it was he meant.

He was interrupted by Snake and Eagle entering the room, Eagle talking loudly about how hungry he was and begging Snake to cook something. None of the men were stellar cooks, to put it nicely, but Snake, out of all them, was the best.

"C'mon, Jason, _please!_ I'm starving to death!" Snake rolled his eyes.

"Okay, first of all, you're not starving to death. You just ate a few hours ago." He nodded to Ben, who was watching them with an amused look. "And secondly, it's only four. You'll survive another hour or so. Or, you could make yourself a sandwich." Eagle paused and considered that, before disregarding it.

"But, you're like the mum of the group!" He protested. "So everything you make tastes better than anything I make!" Ben snorted and spoke before Snake could kill Eagle, as he was looking prone to do at this point.

"So who's the dad, then?" Eagle paused and considered this, turning the question over in his mind.

"James," he finally answered, nodding decisively. "Jason is the mum and James is the dad. See, SAS really is like a family unit!"

"We're supposed to be a _flawless_ unit, not a family one," Jason grit out, trying to preserve his dignity. Eagle snorted.

"You're just mad cos you're a girl," he told him, dancing out of reach when Jason lunged, trying to throttle him.

"Marcus, Jason!" Ben stepped in, forcing them apart. He turned large eyes towards Jason. "Mummy, please don't throttle my idiot brother." Jason snarled something uncomplimentary and stalked out of the room.

"Glad I'm not sharing with him," Ben said amiably. Marcus nodded frantically, though there was still a smirk playing around his lips.

"Dad can calm him down."

"And don't let James hear you call him that." Marcus went sheet white at the thought and his nods turned to shake.

"I like living, thank you!" Ben snorted.

"Not that much."

Alex locked himself in the bathroom, the only place someone was guaranteed privacy in the small cabin. It had only been about two days, but already the bathroom was the go-to place if you wanted to be left alone. It led to mild annoyance from the other teens who weren't using the bathroom as an escape and actually wanted to use it for its intended purpose, but they also understood.

The man must've had a big family, because the cabin consisted of enough rooms to put two people in each room, and then the kitchen, the bathroom and the living room. There were two closets in the hall; one was the linen closet and the other held the washer and dryer. Alex let his mind wander and began thinking about the family. Were they all his children? Or perhaps there might be close cousins? Maybe they just brought some friends out?

Then his mind drifted back to the conversation between he and Ben, if you could call it that. It had barely lasted five minutes and left Alex feeling unsettled. True, Ben had been friendly enough their mission together, but that was just because they were working together, wasn't it? There was no reason for his friendly behavior now. And all right, Ben had found out about his bullet wound a little after the mission had ended and had promised to keep it secret, even though Alex hadn't known at the time whether or not he was still seeing his former teammates, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. Did it?

To the best of his knowledge, the rest of K-unit didn't know that he'd been on more missions than Point Blanc, so he didn't think it was an information gathering thing and Ben didn't know that he'd been on more missions than those two, though he wasn't sure.

Alex let out a small groan of frustration and leaned his head against the wall, staring up at the ceiling. They didn't interact a lot at Brecon Beacons because of the numerous distractions, though Alex was fairly certain Ben had wanted to. However, out here, there weren't nearly as many distractions, though the cabin was small enough that private conversations were next to impossible.

To the best of Alex's knowledge, Ben didn't have an angle for trying to find out about Alex. Well, a small one. The rest of K-unit might be curious, but then they weren't exactly the most subtle when it came to one-on-one conversations. They'd just ask him outright, he was certain. Or at the very least, Eagle would make it a point to ask him in front of everyone.

But he wasn't doing it for MI6. They had files on everything about Alex. And Ben certainly hadn't turned traitor. If he had, he would've killed Alex back at the camp. It could possibly be blackmail, Alex thought, his gazing trailing slowly down the wall, not noticing the ugly wallpaper that was practically begging for someone to destroy it. But what on earth would he blackmail Alex for? When Alex wasn't on a mission, his connections were next to zero.

Alex let out another groan, digging the palms of his hands into his eyes and blinking away the spots that had appeared in his vision when he had stared at the light a bit too long. He couldn't think of any possible reason that Ben would have for trying to find out about him.

So why was he being so friendly to Alex?

"You know what?" Kae asked, doodling in her sketchbook. The scratching of Jessie's pen stopped as she peered over at her friend suspiciously. Normally, when Kae said something like that, she had some scheme up her sleeve, but right now it looked as though she was simply wanting to start a conversation. There was no twitching of the lips while she tried to contain a smile, no look of intense concentration as she tried to work out how exactly she could pull it off and who she could possibly get away with blaming it on. Blaming it on someone else never worked. Kae could be a bit of a genius when it came to causing mayhem, but she was hardly subtle enough to make it look like someone else's work. Besides, she liked taking credit for her disasters.

No, right now, she only looked contemplative. Her doodles even looked harmless, just small headshots of everyone. Jessie deemed it safe to find out what the other girl was thinking.

"What?" She asked, resuming her writing. She'd found a notebook and was now using it as a makeshift diary. She kept it hidden, though she strongly suspected Kae knew where it was being kept anyway.

"We don't know the soldiers' names," she replied. "Or Fox's. I think I overheard Alex telling Tom that he wasn't technically a part of the unit anymore. But they know ours." Jessie shrugged one shoulder. She had an idea for a song and she wanted to get it out before the idea either drove her insane or disappeared completely.

"So why don't you go ask them?" Jessie suggested, frowning at her paper slightly. "What rhymes with blue?"

"Flue," Kae answered after a moment of thought. "And I mean like the chimney flue, not floo from Harry Potter."

"I was wondering," Jessie mused. 'Flue' wasn't the word she was looking for and unless she wanted to start copying Dr. Seuss's style and make up words, she was going to have to find another one. There was a few moments of silence.

"Asking them isn't any fun," Kae finally answered. Jessie looked up again, momentarily sidetracked and regarded her. "Besides, do you really think they'd just _tell_ us?" Jessie shrugged.

"You could give it a shot. Not everything is as complicated as it seems." With that bit of wisdom imparted, Jessie turned back to her notebook. She'd finally come up with the word and now she needed to fit it in.

**KLBDKLBDKLBDKLBDKBLD**

Okay, this just took longer than it should have. It wasn't particularly hard writing it, but I got a little busy. I made it a little longer to make up for the wait, though.

And I'm sure you've noticed that I've handed out names to the soldiers. To be clear so that no one gets confused, their names are as follows:

Wolf: James Ruiz

Fox: Ben Daniels

Snake: Jason Danvers

Eagle: Marcus Dean

(Heh…Wolf's the oddball. Why couldn't his last name had started with a 'D' like the others?)

And room arrangements for everyone:

Snake and Wolf

Eagle and Fox

Jessie and Kae

Tom and Alex

Luke and James

And now I've got that bit of organization out of the way.


	5. I'm Tired

They weren't allowed outside until the soldiers had explored at least three miles into the woods surrounded the cabin and deemed it safe for the teens to head out into the surrounding forest. It would lead to a boring next couple of days, but the soldiers weren't giving an inch on this and so the teens resigned themselves to being stuck.

Kae was quick to find ways to amuse herself though. She had started exploring the kitchen on their third day of 'house arrest' and found a junk drawer, to her surprise. But to her never-ending delight, she found rubber bands. Lots and lots of rubber bands.

She glanced around, double checking to make sure the kitchen was empty before picking through the rubber bands carefully and selecting the thinnest for her prank. It was simple and harmless and a lot of fun to watch. She quickly double checked again to make sure that no one was around and then she wrapped it around the handle of the hose connected to the sink.

Then she simply headed to the living room and settled down in an armchair with _Phantom of the Opera_, seeing as Jessie was generous enough to lend her the book. Kae smiled as Jessie came in, humming and running one of Luke's socks over the coffee table, dusting it.

Kae tried to keep her pranks on Jessie more low-key. Jessie had a sense of humor to be sure, but she was so sweet and caring that Kae was sometimes uncertain where the line was when pranking the red-head girl and had no desire to hurt her feelings because Jessie was so sweet and probably wouldn't say anything. Then again, Kae had never known Jessie to take any crap if she felt she didn't deserve it.

The sound of footsteps in the kitchen tore Kae from her musing and she grinned, rocking back and forth on her seat. Jessie took one look at Kae and began edging back towards the bedrooms. The footsteps were heavy to be one of the guys and that left the soldiers. She had no desire to in or near the kitchen when the ax fell.

Then again…Jessie had gotten rather bored during their stay inside. She might as well stay and watch the show. She wandered casually into the kitchen and saw Eagle rummaging through the fridge. Studying the kitchen carefully, she made her way to the sink and carefully opened the cabinet door, half-expecting a bunch of spiders to fall onto her head.

Nothing.

Cautiously, Jessie reached into the cabinet and pulled a glass out. She glanced over her shoulder at Eagle, who was attempting to open the god-forsaken pickle jar. Nobody, it seemed, was ever able to open up the pickle jar that had been brought. Jessie wondered if MI6 did it on purpose.

Starting to relax slightly now that nothing had happened yet, Jessie was starting to think that maybe Kae was simply trying to burn excess energy. Though she would do it in the form that made her seem like a crazy person, Jessie had no idea.

Then again…it _was_ Kae. Whoever said she needed a reason?

Jessie moved to stand in front of the sink, now no longer paying much attention to the man behind her. He returned the favor. She and Eagle didn't really know each other very well and neither was willing to be the one to break the ice.

Jessie was jerked from her line of thought when she turned the faucet on and was immediately sprayed by the hose. She gasped and let out a sputtered half-shriek as the freezing water hit her and the glass slipped from her hand into the sink, with a clatter and she wondered briefly if it had broken. It took her a moment to process what was going on and then she dove for the handle, fumbling with it for a moment before managing to shut the water off, grabbing a towel and wiping her face off.

She heard a snort of laughter from behind her and she looked over her shoulder at Eagle, shooting him a venomous glare. If anything, this only served to amuse the man even more and Jessie felt her own lips twitch upward in amusement. She really started grinning when she saw Kae enter the kitchen, trying and failing to contain her giggles and taking a seat at the table.

"So what do I need to do to buy your silence?" She asked finally when she managed to calm to down, sounding very much like a business executive. Jessie and Eagle glanced at each other and then back, each contemplating what their silence was worth. Finally Jessie spoke.

"You help me clean next weekend," she said. She figured a prank in exchange for a bit of help in housework for a weekend was a fair trade

"You don't pull a prank on me for two days," Eagle shot out. He didn't think Kae would be able to handle much more than that and he didn't want to see her when she snapped.

"Done," Kae said. She had looked a little put-out, but at least she didn't have to do Eagle's laundry or something. That was just gross. Jessie grinned and went to go change her shirt.

Kae rarely took time to just lie down and rest. Because when she did, her thoughts strayed to places she didn't want them to go. They found themselves back at Brecon Beacons, inside the cave, being strangled, inside the burning cabin. She'd been like that ever since her parents had died. If she didn't stop, the memories wouldn't surface and if they didn't surface, she didn't have to face them. Call her a coward, but Kae truly didn't think she was strong enough to handle it.

So she found something to always occupy her mind. Her drawing skills weren't natural. She'd devoted hours and years to improving them until it came naturally. She knew that picking up tips from profilers wasn't enough to improve on, so she bugged Spencer until he had agreed to take her to work with him and watched and listened and pretended that her own demons were someone else's that the team was rushing out to deal with. Elle had started teaching her to use a gun, although she wasn't all that adept because Elle had left before she finished teaching her and nobody else had seemed to be able to find the time. Spencer would get her self-teaching books on different subjects.

The best, though, was when she was nine and Morgan had bought her a joke book and began teaching her the finer points of pranking. And it was a wonderful distraction! If Kae did it right, she could get everyone laughing and her mind would be properly distracted. And it seemed to work every time, so she kept at it. She got infatuated with spy and action movies and began teaching herself to be quiet while walking, though Spencer and Hotch had been swift in shutting down her trying to learn how to pick locks and pockets.

Whether or not anyone else shared her sentiments, Kae didn't know. She thought Tom might've, she'd already known that his parents were fighting and going through a divorce, but it was impossible to tell. She didn't think Luke and Jessie did, because they had their religion and she envied them a bit for that, because they always seemed sure and confident. Alex was an incredibly private person, so she wasn't as sure, but she thought maybe he preferred to battle those demons head on and by himself. It didn't leave a lot of room for trust and she couldn't tell if he was winning or losing. She a bit confused at how James dealt with it, as well. She thought he'd rebel at them, but so far there hadn't been anything. It was a bit disconcerting.

But right now, Kae felt tired. She didn't want to say old, because she didn't feel that. But she felt tired. She was tired of hiding. Tired of being helpless. She was sick of worrying about her family. Tired of being dependent on someone else to protect her. She knew how to protect herself. She could shoot a gun. She knew to lock her doors and windows at night. She just wanted this to be over.

Which is how about an hour after Jessie had gotten soaked, Kae found herself laying down in her bed, staring blankly at the opposite wall. She knew she needed to move, but she couldn't bring herself to. She felt defeated. She just wanted the nightmares and the constant fear of looking over her shoulder to go away.

"Hey."

Kae looked up in surprise. She hadn't heard her bedroom door open. James was standing a little awkwardly in her doorway. Kae smiled and he took it as an invitation to enter, shutting the door part-way behind him.

"You're breaking Wolf's rule," she needled gently. James chuckled, flicking on the light.

"Yeah, I am," he shrugged. Kae sighed and her smile faded a little bit. His eyes widened. "Woah, did I do something wrong? I can leave."

"No, no, you're fine," she said quickly, sitting up. "Stay."

James nodded and climbed into the bed behind her, pulling her flush against him with his arms wrapped around her waist. Kae smiled and intertwined her fingers with his.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked. He felt Kae heave a sigh and there was silence for a few moments. James was starting to think she wasn't going to answer.

"I'm tired," she said. James misunderstood and started to draw back, only to be stopped when her hand tightened its grip around his.

"I'm not that kind of tired," she said. "I don't need a nap. I'm tired of being here. I'm tired of hiding. I'm tired of this constant…fear that we may not live to see tomorrow." James was silent as his thumb rubbed circles in her hand. He wish he could see her face, but since her back was against his chest that made it a little difficult.

"Me too," he finally responded quietly. "I don't like it, either." Kae's grip tightened subconsciously.

"Do you think we'll ever stop running?" She whispered. True, they'd only been to two safe locations, but the other one hadn't been very safe in her opinion and she was certain that it was only a matter of time before this one turned out very much like Brecon Beacons, where somebody found them and the nightmare would begin all over again.

"Honey, they can't chase us forever," James said. He buried his nose in her hair, inhaling the scent of the generic shampoo they all used. He wondered vaguely what scent she used normally.

"How can you be sure?" She whispered. James propped himself up on an elbow so he could see her face. He was surprised to see a tear sliding down her cheek. He used his thumb to wipe it away and turned her so that she was facing him.

"I'm not," he answered honestly. "But if we think that they are going to chase us forever, that doesn't make for a very good ending, does it?" Kae gave a small huff of laughter that turned into a small hiccup.

"It's not a story, James," she said thickly and was horrified to discover she'd started crying. She scrubbed at her cheeks, trying to make the tears disappear.

"Isn't it, though?" James countered, wiping her tears away for her. "Story of our lives? Yeah, nobody knows it but us, but it's our story." Kae managed to stem the tears and watched him, waiting for him to talk. There was silence for a few minutes before James started speaking again. "When I was little, my mum read me stories every night before I went to bed. And then as she was tucking me in, she would tell me that nobody could write my life's story but me."

"So you just turn your life into a story?" Kae asked, trying to keep the disbelief from her tone. Either it worked or James was too distracted to notice. He shrugged.

"It helps," he answered. "If it's a story, it's easier to detach myself because then I can pretend that it someone else's life and not mine. That I'm just a bystander." He laughed a little self-deprecatingly. "Then I think of my mum and I try and get myself back into my life." Kae snuggled closer, turning her head so she could hear his heartbeat.

"Your mom sounds like a wonderful lady," she whispered. James smiled sadly.

"She was," he whispered back. It took a moment for it to sink in. Kae hugged him gently.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. He kissed her hair.

"I know," he murmured.

**KLBDKLBDKLBDKLBDKBLDKLBD**

So, this was a little more depressing than normal. I'm usually not like this. But anyway, two new chapters written within a few days of each other! I'm so excited! Okay, I cheated a bit on this one, but still! Woo-hoo!

Cookies to anyone who reviews!


	6. CARLOS!

"Carlos!" Kae ran into the living room, hollering at the top of her voice. "Carlos, do you know if you use peanut butter or cheese for mouse traps?" The soldiers looked up from their various activities in bemusement. She skidded to a halt in front of them and waited for an answer. There was silence as they stared at each other for a minute and then Snake spoke.

"Who's Carlos?" He asked. She looked crestfallen.

"Aren't any of you named Carlos?" She asked. They shook their head. She huffed. "Drat. Well, anyway, do you use peanut butter or cheese for mouse traps?"

"Um…it doesn't really matter," Fox answered, frowning slightly. "Are you-are you trying to guess our names?" She shifted to one foot.

"Maaaaaaaybe," she replied, drawing the word out. She turned to flounce out of the room. "'Kay, thanks." Then she was gone.

"She's mad," Wolf muttered, returning his attention to the TV. There was silence for a few minutes before Eagle looked back up.

"Hang on a tic," he said. "Where'd she get a mouse trap?"

"So…do you think they'll let us out soon?" Kae, Jessie and Tom were gathered in the living room, still shivering from the gust of cold air that had blown in when Wolf and Fox had left the cabin to go scout out the surrounding woods. Snake and Eagle had disappeared to their respective rooms, though the doors had been left open a crack so they could hear what was going on in the rest of the cabin.

"For our sake, I hope they do," Tom said solemnly. "I don't know what we'll do once you start getting _really_ bored." Jessie snorted from her position in the only armchair. Kae had spent the morning picking dead bugs out of a glowering Fox's shampoo.

"Tom, you don't have much room to talk," she informed him, not looking up from her book. "Once the two of you start getting bored and decide to team up, I imagine it will only be a matter of time before Wolf gets court marshaled for murdering the people he was supposed to protect."

"Do you think he'd get a dishonorable discharge or just court marshaled?" Kae asked, thoughtfully. "I'm not sure what that would get you up for."

"Mm…if he gets a jury of his peers, probably just a court marshal," Tom answered, his expression as thoughtful as Kae's.

"And where is he going to get a jury of his peers?" Jessie pointed out. "We're a rather unique situation, aren't we?"

"So, what a lifetime in prison? How do you people feel about capital punishment?" Kae asked amiably. She flipped a page in her sketchbook and began sketching a cartoon of Wolf with steam coming out of his nose and ears.

"I don't know what's more disturbing," Snake said, coming into the room. "That fact that you're talking about lifetimes in prison and capital punishment so lightly or the fact you're talking about them at all." He peered over Kae's shoulder. "Though, if he were to see that, I'd speak up in his defense."

"I'm sure he'd feel all the better, then," Kae said vaguely. "You know, it's rude to look over people's shoulders like that." She reached over her shoulder and poked Snake in the forehead with her eraser. He straightened up and looked around. "Where are the rest of you lot?"

"If they're not in the kitchen, they're probably back in the bedrooms," Tom told him, flipping through the stations without really paying attention to what was on them. He answered Snake's question before he could ask. "There aren't any games on, I already checked."

"There was that one TV show," Kae offered. "Dr. Who, I think?"

"It was a rerun," Tom replied, looking bored out of his skull. Kae shrugged.

"Are there any movies or something?" She asked.

"Just a bunch of old ones. Whoever owns this cabin is a fan of someone named John Wayne," Tom replied.

"Mm." Kae began sketching in a comically wide-eyed Fox behind the steaming Wolf. "Those are all right. I like The Quiet Man the best. The owner must've spent some time over in America. At least enough to get acquainted with westerns and John Wayne, at any rate."

"Who is he?" Jessie asked.

"He was an actor," Kae answered. "He was in a bunch of older films. He died in the seventies, I think."

"Why was The Quiet Man your favorite?" Snake asked, snagging the remote from Tom, who protested. "Oh, hush, I haven't been able to keep with Dr. Who. I probably haven't seen the episode."

"It was the only film of his I'd seen," Kae told him. Snake nudged Tom over so that he could sit on the couch as well. Kae scooted over and as soon as the two of them were settled, she stretched her legs out over them. A comfortable silence pervaded the room.

"Jessie?" Tom asked, breaking the long silence. A quick glance at the clock showed it to be getting closer to four o'clock.

"Hm?"

"What's for dinner?" She shrugged, turning a page.

"I haven't figured that out yet. Anything sound good?"

"No." Snake frowned. Jessie had made full meals since they had gotten there, but the teens had very little appetite, another side effect. Even the fact that it wasn't hospital food and MREs wasn't enough to get them to eat again. The fridge was filling up with leftovers that nobody seemed all that inclined to eat. To say it was worrying would be a bit of an understatement.

"Why don't you just heat up the leftovers?" He suggested. No point in making another meal that wouldn't be eaten. Maybe tonight they would eat more than a few bites.

"I guess so," Jessie yawned. It would make dishes easier, at any rate. She tucked the quilt she had grabbed earlier around her more securely, shut her book and curled up into a tighter ball in her chair, laying her head on the arm. Kae had retracted her legs from Snake's lap and instead had tucked her feet under his legs so that he could move without hindrance if he needed to. Tom had a pulled another blanket over the two of them.

They looked over as the front door opened and Fox and Wolf reentered the cabin, shivering. Snake stood and Wolf nodded.

"Does this mean we can go out now?" Kae mumbled lazily. She shut her sketchbook and craned her neck to look at them.

"Yes," Wolf nodded. "You can." She grinned.

"Awesome," she replied, closing her eyes.

Jessie was in a bad mood. She slammed a dish into the soapy water, ignoring Kae's wince, who was drying the dishes. The red-head was snarling under her breath and scrubbing the plastic containers with force than was strictly necessary. Kae quietly put the dish she was holding away, not wishing to attract the girl's ire.

"Uhm…Jess? Is everything okay?" She asked tentatively. Let it never be said that while Kae normally didn't have very good survival instincts, she at least had a few. They obviously weren't working properly, because if they had been, Kae would've never opened her mouth in the first place, but asking for survival instincts _and_ asking them to work right was simply asking too much, in Kae's not-so-humble opinion.

"_Yes_," Jessie snapped. "Everything is _fine_ and _dandy_ and _peachy-keen._" She all but threw the clean container into the sink for Kae to dry.

"Really? Cos it doesn't seem like it," Kae told her, throwing caution to the wind. If Alex was going to leave her to deal with his crabby girlfriend, then she was going to leave a huge mess for him to clean up afterwards. She picked up the dish and tried not to flinch at the look Jessie gave her.

"No. Everything is fine. We've been here for _two weeks_ and I have been stuck with nearly every single chore in the entire _house_. I cook, I clean, I do laundry, I do _their_ laundry, I do the dishes-"

"We help out…some," Kae protested. Jessie sent her a withering look. Kae felt it to be in her best interests to take a step back.

"Yes, you do," she snarled. "But not _them_. Ungrateful, smarmy-" Kae, felt that was going a bit far, but instinct told her to keep quiet "-inconsiderate…and they say _we're_ ungrateful! As if we _asked_ for this to happen and as if we _asked_ for _their_ help and then they don't help out _at all_-" Ah…and therein lay the problem. Kae suddenly understood.

"You know," she said casually. "I agree completely." Jessie blinked, surprised. "Well, not with the smarmy part, but I think that was just you letting off steam. But everything else, absolutely." She nodded sagely. "I actually have a plan for this because I've been thinking about it, too." She put the container away. "As soon as we're finished, we need to round up the guys and meet in our room for a war council."

Jessie finished the dishes in a slightly better mood.

"So," Kae began, settling herself on her bed and facing the other five. "I think we can all agree we have mild complaints about the soldiers." She kept her voice low, the walls were thin, after all.

"Right…" James said slowly, not entirely sure he like where this was going.

"Well, I propose we do something about it," Kae answered.

"Like what?" Luke asked, trying to be the voice of reason. "It's not as if we can go to MI6 and tell them we don't like our protection detail."

"Luke!" James sounded delighted. "I'm rubbing off on you!"

"That's not exactly a good thing," Luke grumbled. James shrugged.

"I've got it all work out," Kae smiled. "All I need for-"

"What are you doing in there?" Wolf's voice rang through the door. He didn't actually open it, though. Kae paused before answering. Alex beat her to it.

"Having an orgy!" He yelled back. "Go away!" Jessie smacked him. He grinned at her and kissed her temple. There was a moment of silence and then Wolf walked away, muttering.

"Anyway," Kae continued as though there hadn't been any interruption. "All I need for you is to simply cause a distraction. Wolf will be the target, since he's the leader."

"What, exactly, are you planning to do?" Tom asked warily. Kae smiled.

"Oh, you'll see," she answered. "I think we'll do it tomorrow. Don't worry. It's not something you can _miss._"

****

Okay, and to see what happens you'll have to go to **Ovolamp**'s "I'm In Your Pants" story. For any new readers, this was written after "I'm In Your Pants" and it's now actually worked into the story so you can definitely tell when this happens.

Enjoy!


	7. Will You Be Okay?

"How long have you been a spy?"

More often than not, one could find the teens piled up in a bedroom, it didn't matter whose, sprawled over the furniture and simply talking or doing other various activities. Card games had become a fast favorite. Today was one of these days and Kae reveled in the fact that she could now cuddle with James without fearing retribution from Wolf. Much. She knew the other couple was enjoying the newfound freedom just as much.

Alex looked up from his position on the bed, stretched out behind Jessie, who was playing solitaire. He'd known this was coming and there'd been questions. So far they'd been harmless, like how long he'd been a spy and how long he'd had to stay at Brecon Beacons the first time around, but Alex knew it was a matter of time before they started getting into more dangerous territory, like what his missions had been about or what had happened on them. He'd refused to answer how many missions he'd been on total, though he was certain that they could probably piece it together from the number of his absences. Kae would find out from the others.

"Since my uncle died," Alex answered. "You can put that card there." He pointed to a column. Jessie smiled in thanks and put the card where he'd indicated.

"That long?" She asked, putting down another card. Alex hummed in confirmation.

"So, just curious," Luke spoke up from behind his book. "When the science building blew up last term…did you have anything to do with that?" Kae didn't even wait for answer, sitting up quickly from her position of leaning against James.

"You _blew up_ a _science building_?" She demanded. "Sweet Mary, Alex! Even _I_ never did anything like that!"

"Thanks, Kae," Alex said drily. "But you're not one talk. I keep hearing about this Incident at the Mall. Care to elaborate?"

"Nope," Kae answered, settling back down. "We don't like to talk about it much."

"Why not?" Jessie asked, finishing out her game and dealing out a new one. Kae gave her a sour look.

"How much would you like to talk about an incident that involved your National Guard showing up in a small town mall?"

"Oh, now this ought to be good," James snorted. "Spill."

"No." Kae shook her head.

"Now."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"James, are you really trying to out-stubborn me?" Kae asked. James nodded. "Good luck." She turned back to Alex.

"So? Did it?" She asked. By now everyone had turned their attention back to Alex who sighed inwardly before nodding.

"And that field trip when you fell out of the bus?"

"That was the start of a mission," Alex answered, shifting slightly. "Can we not-"

"Yeah, sorry," Luke said quickly. "Anyone know what time it is?"

"Three thirty," Tom answered, checking his watch. "I think Eagle said there was a game on today at four."

"Is it a new one?" James asked.

"Dunno. Gonna have to watch it, aren't we?" Tom asked. He flipped over on his stomach to face Jessie. "Are you making dinner or did you convince someone else to do it?"

"I got Fox and Eagle to," she answered, reshuffling the deck. "We're running low on supplies and they know how to make it stretch. They said we'd be getting some more supplies later this week."

"When we get more stuff can we have spaghetti?" James asked. Jessie shrugged.

"Why not?"

KLBDKLBDKLBD

"Jessie and I are going on a walk, Kyle," Kae told Wolf, entering the living room the next day.

"Fine. Don't go too far," Wolf answered. Kae waited where she was. Wolf looked up at her expectant look and grinned. "And you guessed wrong. Again."

"Dang it!" She stomped out of the room before peering back in. "Benvolio?"

"My parents, thank god, did not name after a character from 'Romeo and Juliet'. Try again."

"Hamlet."

"No."

"Umm…Macbeth." Wolf rolled his eyes.

"While I am impressed that you're able to rattle off Shakespeare's characters, I was not named after any of them. Go take your walk." Kae made a face and a few minutes later he heard the girls' voices before the front door opened and shut after them just as Marcus entered the room.

"Who left?" He asked curiously, sitting down besides James.

"Kae and Jessie. They went for a walk," Marcus answered, eyes flickering over to his teammate. Marcus's face tightened just a bit. "Are you all right?"

"Are they going to be all right?" He asked. James shifted so that he was facing him.

"Are you?" He challenged. Marcus scowled.

"What do you mean?" James scowled back.

"Don't give me that, Marcus." James softened his gaze a bit. "Look, I didn't know Emily, but you've talked about her and shown us pictures. They look a lot alike and according to you, they act similar." Marcus scowled harder. James met him stare for stare. Finally Marcus looked away.

"They are alike," he said quietly. "Kae is pretty much Emily incarnate, it seems like." He scowled at the floor before looking at James, pained. "I've screwed up, James. I made an attachment. I've been treating Kae like my sister and she's not. She just reminds me of her so much and I feel like-"

"Like you've been given a second chance?" James supplied quietly. Marcus nodded. James leaned back in his seat, running a hand through his short, growing-longer hair. "Look, mate. You're not the only one who screwed up, okay? We've all gotten attached. Hell, I feel I suddenly have about six more younger siblings." Marcus smiled slightly. His arms were resting on his knees and he was slumped forward.

"And Lord knows you've got more than enough." James snorted.

"Got that right," he answered. "I'm not saying it'll be easy no matter what with them, especially if we get reassigned, but we're doing our jobs to the best of our ability. They're as safe as we can make them." Marcus looked up at James intently, his eyes boring intently into his team leader's.

"We could get reassigned?" He demanded. James scowled slightly at the thought.

"Only if they find out we've formed attachments," he answered. Marcus's eyes immediately began shifting around the room as if he expected an MI6 agent to pop out from behind the armchair. "I've already checked for bugs and cameras. There aren't any." Marcus breathed out and leaned back.

"So, have you noticed anything odd?" He asked casually. James snorted.

"If you're referring to Cub…"

"So it's not just me," Marcus said. "Good. For a little bit I was starting to get worried." James frowned.

"He's been different ever since Day One," he said. Seeing Marcus's looked he added, "And I'm not talking about when he was Double-Oh-Nothing. I mean, the second time around." Marcus nodded thoughtfully.

"I noticed that. And I'm fairly certain Ben knows more than he's letting on," he said. James gave a small huff.

"'Course he does. Damn spies," he added under his breath. "But then, we haven't exactly asked him about it, have we?"

"We'll have to have a meeting soon," Marcus remarked. "Not just about Cub and Ben and what he's holding back. About the others, too. The nightmares aren't getting any better."

"Agreed," James nodded. "Not tonight, though. The kids are getting antsy. They'll be all over the place tonight." Marcus chuckled.

"They'll be dead asleep tomorrow night, then." He wore an amused grin. James grinned as well before it faded slightly.

"Until they wake up at three in the morning." Marcus clapped him on the shoulder.

"It'll get better," he said bracingly. "Maybe this just one of those things where the mind is finally working everything out and after that it'll be easier."

"Maybe," James said, sounding a bit doubtful. "I still wished they had a therapist or something."

"I know," Marcus said quietly. "Me too."

****

So, I only have one chapter for you guys. But I blame school. And the fact that I had a bunch of Batman plot bunnies running around in my head. I blame that second one on my sister who gave me the Batman comics to read in the first place. I place the blame of me actually enjoying them on myself.

So just a reminder, Marcus is Eagle and James is Wolf. And I'm not sure of the actual timeline, I went back over the story and the best I can guess is that they've been there about three weeks.

Let me know!


	8. New Guy Number 1

Jessie and Kae were silent as they walked through the woods. The only sound was the snow crunching under their feet and the occasional twitter of a bird that had stayed for winter.

"So, what's a normal school year like?" Kae finally asked to break the silence. "I mean what would be happening around now?" Jessie cocked her head to the side for a moment, thinking, before answering.

"Right around now would be homecoming," she answered. " Year 11 would be working on fundraising to put something special on for Year 12 besides prom, but they would've started that way back at the beginning of term." Jessie's eyes began to glaze over as she thought. "Science fair is coming up, so students would be working on that."

"Is science fair mandatory?" Kae asked as they climbed over a log. Fox had mentioned a spring a few miles west of the cabin, which was where they were headed, hopefully. Neither Kae nor Jessie were very good with directions.

"Depending on the year it is," Jessie replied. "If you're in Year 9 or younger, it's mandatory, but the upper grades have the option to participate." Kae hummed in acknowledgement.

"It's every other year for my old school," she said. "It was mandatory no matter what grade you're in. Which is pain because almost nobody likes science fair." She paused. "Except the really smart people."

"Do you enjoy science fair?" Jessie asked.

"Nope," Kae answered. "I enjoy science as long as people aren't dictating how I do it."

Jessie raised her eyebrows. "And how do you normally do it?" She asked.

Kae grinned. "All of the mayhem and none of the organization."

Jessie smirked and Kae swore the expression looked downright _demonic_ on her. "Why am I not surprised?"

Kae laughed. "I dunno. Why?" Jessie laughed with her and reached up to knock some snow off a branch onto Kae's head before taking off, leaving the spluttering girl behind her. A moment later, Kae gave a shout and began pursuing Jessie. Neither of them were making any attempt to be quiet, shouting taunts at each other as they ran and simply crashing through the underbrush.

Kae wasn't expecting it when Jessie skidded to a sudden halt. Kae was only a few steps behind her and her reaction time wasn't fast enough, causing her to run into Jessie sending them both the ground. Kae pushed back quickly and rolled off her, shivering from the snow that managed to work its way under her clothes and into her shoes. It took her a moment to realize that Jessie was scooting backwards quickly. It took a few seconds more to register the blond man standing about fifteen feet away from them, way to close for Kae's liking and she too began scooting backward, the two of them scrambling to their feet and backing up another five feet.

Impulsively, the two of them gripped each other and stared at the man with wide eyes, who looked back at them calmly as if he ran across teenaged girls in the middle of nowhere every day. Which, for all Kae knew, he could. She preferred not to think about what that could lead to, so she focused on studying him. She was calming down now that he hadn't made any move towards them, though he hadn't said anything either, so that was a little weird, but she could deal with that. She cocked her head to the side and chewed on her tongue for a moment before speaking. She quite personally liked the shade of blue his eyes were. She'd never seen eyes quite like his. They were an ice blue that seemed to have just a little bit of sadness in them. But maybe she was imagining that.

"Who are you?" She asked. There was silence for a long moment and Kae opened her mouth again, presumably to ask the question again when he spoke.

"My name does not matter," he answered. He spoke with an Eastern Europe accent. If Kae had to guess she would say Ukrainian, but she wasn't sure. She was just going off the newest Indiana Jones movie, which was as much experience that she had with Eastern European accents. She shifted slightly and cocked her head the other way.

"So…what are you doing out here?" She really wasn't expecting an answer and wasn't all that surprised when he didn't answer, just gave her a flat look as if to say "are you stupid?" She glared. Truth be told, she was scared, because the guy looked…dangerous, was the best she could come up with, and there wasn't a lot she and Jessie would be able to do. But she didn't want him to know that. An amused look entered his eyes as if he knew what she was thinking.

"I could ask the same of you," he finally said, giving them an appraising look.

"It's…for a vaca-"

"Holiday," Jessie finally spoke up quickly. "We're out here for a holiday with some extended family." The man shot Kae a pointed look.

"A very extended family, I see." Kae gulped quietly. They didn't know who this man was and if word somehow got back that there was an American teenager running around with an English teenager in the middle of the woods with "extended family", someone would make the connection. She should've just let Jessie do the talking from the start.

"She spent the Christmas holiday in the States with our mum and little bit after the break ended. Her accent just hasn't faded yet," Jessie filled quickly, shrugging and trying to look nonchalant. "Our dad wanted to spend some time together before we went back to school and he invited some family." Kae had to admit, she was impressed with the story. Too bad she and Jessie didn't look anything alike or have anything that could identify them as sisters.

"I have a cabin," he offered in return. "I have been staying here for some time. It had given me time to reflect on my life. I do not plan to leave for some time." The two of them nodded.

"Um, we should probably be heading back," Jessie said, finally. "…Dad…will be wondering where we got, too. C'mon, Katie." She tugged on Kae's arm and they turned and began walking back the direction they came.

When Kae looked back over her shoulder, the man was gone.

"Jessie," she whispered, slowing. "He's gone." Jessie tugged on her to keep her moving. Kae complied and started moving again

"Good," she hissed back. "Come on. I don't think he'll hurt us, but I'd just as soon not be out here." Kae slowed again, watching her friend.

"What makes you say that?" She asked. She didn't think he would, either, but she wanted to hear Jessie's reasoning.

"He knew we were lying," Jessie huffed. She stopped, sensing Kae wasn't going to move until she got an answer and the sooner they got inside, the better. "But he said he'd been out here for a while and he wasn't going to leave anytime soon. He didn't need to tell us that. He was telling us he wouldn't say anything about us."

"Huh," Kae said, allowing herself to be pulled forward again.

"What?" Jessie asked as they starting hurrying back towards the cabin.

"Nothing," Kae shrugged. "Just great minds think alike and all that."

KLBDKLBDKLBDKLBD

So, here's the next chapter. Sorry it took so long. And it's short, I know :P. I don't like that, but hopefully the next one will be longer.

Does the UK have Indiana Jones? What are some popular movies or TV shows that you have?

Anyway, enjoy!


	9. Conversations

"Should we tell them?" Kae asked. She and Jessie were just outside the cabin on the porch the next day and talking quietly. They were sitting on the bench and staring idly out at where the road would be in there wasn't a foot of snow on the ground. "The soldiers, I mean." Jessie shot her a sharp look.

"Why wouldn't we?" She asked. Kae shrugged.

"Well, I mean, he's not going to tell anyone about us," she answered. "So, shouldn't we return the favor?"

"Kae-" Jessie began.

"Besides, he's dangerous," Kae talked over her. "And I mean the same kind of dangerous as the assassin back at camp." She turned to Jessie. "If we tell the soldiers about him, they're going to want to check it out and what he sees them as a threat. They'll already be going in thinking of _him_ as a threat." Jessie was silent as she considered this. Finally, Jessie sighed.

"I can think of about five hundred different ways this could blow up in our faces," she told Kae. "But I can think about five hundred different ways it could blow up in our faces if we _do_ tell them, as well."

"I know," Kae replied, frowning. She leaned back against the building. "Ever get the feeling we're missing something?" Jessie snorted.

"Kae, I have the feeling all the time," she answered. She stood. "We're supposed to get supplies tomorrow, so we only have to endure one more night of their cooking, at least."

"You mean you actually eat it?" Kae asked dryly, standing as well.

"No. Don't be ridiculous." Jessie regarded her seriously. "Kae, I hope you know what you're doing. Whatever you're missing could mean the difference between safety and danger."

For once, Kae didn't make a wisecrack and only nodded as they headed inside.

"Me too, Jess."

Jessie was curled up on the loveseat, reading one of the romance novels she had picked off the bookshelf. A pile of discarded books lay on the seat next to her and a scowl was darkening her normally pretty features. She'd flipped through several of the books and she had yet to find one she was interested in reading. She threw the book off to the side, giving up with a huff. She stood up and went to the bookshelf again. She didn't pay any attention to the person entered the room until arms slipped around her waist and a kiss was planted on her cheek. Jessie smiled, a blush creeping up her cheeks. No matter how many times Alex did that, it would always make her blush she knew. She leaned into his embrace and turned her head enough to give him a quick peck.

"So are the books just ones you've read or is it a way to indicate you want to sit by yourself?" His voice rumbled in her ear and Jessie reached down to place her hands over his.

"No," she answered with a frown. "They're just ones that I've found unappealing." She felt Alex straighten to he could turn his head to look at the loveseat without knocking them both over.

"There's twelve of them," he pointed out, sounding amused. "Surely they can't all be unappealing."

"Well, the plotlines are good," she explained. "I just don't like the content." Alex made a humming noise as he contemplated this.

"What's in them?" He asked, leaning over to pick up one of the books, leaving one arm looped around her waist. Before Jessie could open her mouth to protest, he flipped one of them open, his eyes scanning the page. He flipped through it and his eyes widened.

"Erm…" He said, reading the page, fascinated. Then he looked up and noticed Jessie glaring at him. "Sorry." He hastily dropped the book. "You might…want to hide those…before…Eagle…decides he's…bored and flips through them…or James…again" He cleared his throat uncomfortably and deciding that changing the subject may very well save his life, he dragged her over to the sofa and yanked her down next to him.

It was funny how he could face down madmen, but one glare from his girlfriend was enough to make him want to hide under his bed, he thought grimly. Only two other people have other been able to do that: Jack and Ian.

He smiled as she curled against him, her head resting on his chest, apparently all forgiven. Normally he'd question being forgiven that easily, but he discovered rather quickly that it was impossible for Jessie to hold grudges. He had seen her give a girl a real tongue-lashing, reduce her to tears and hug her as the girl was sobbing her heart out.

Jessie did not hold grudges.

It would have been easy for her to hate him once she had found out that he was a spy and the whole reason they were in the mess. But she hadn't. In fact, she had had become his girlfriend, which to Alex was the same as saying that she would be there through thick and thin.

He wasn't as worried about school as he used to be. They wouldn't split up. Kae hung with him and Tom and James had long ago stopped being hostile. Jessie was his girlfriend and she and Luke were always together. Luke was very accepting. If anything, their group would probably split off from the rest of the school.

For the moment, Alex relaxed into the couch, pretending he was a normal fifteen-year-old boy relaxing on the couch at home with his girlfriend. He didn't worry about the future. He didn't worry about the past or what was going on at the present.

Luke tended to be a quiet person. In fact, he was almost always a quiet person, except when he felt that yelling was justifiable. Like when Alex and Tom were pretending to bang each other while he was under the bed. It was also one of the few times he swore too. He didn't swear unless it was make a point.

It was a strong point, in Luke's mind, to make sure he wasn't crushed because Alex was jumping up and down on the bed.

Although he did feel a certain degree of sympathy for Wolf. He had no idea who could listen to that and remain mentally unscarred.

Well, Tom, Alex, Kae…but he wasn't counting them.

Now he could be found sitting on top of the dryer as it rumbled under him. Wolf and Eagle were out making rounds around the woods and Fox and Snake were in the kitchen. The soldiers didn't go for more than a mile around the cabin anymore. James was in his and Luke's bedroom with the door shut.

He was staring out the small window absent-mindedly. There wasn't any fresh snow and it was creeping up to being near the middle of February. Luke sighed and ruffled his hair. They had spent almost the entire school term out and he had no doubt whatsoever in his mind that they would be there till the end of the school term and into summer term.

"Hey."

Luke jumped. He had been so engrossed with his thoughts, he hadn't heard the door open. He turned to see Fox standing in the opening before he turned back around to look out the window. It was a cloudy day, not anything exciting.

"You know, when someone gives a greeting, most people say 'hi' back," Fox said. Luke could hear…no, _sense_ Fox moving into the small space before pulling himself up on the washer. Luke shook his head, at the thought. His senses may not be up to par with Alex's, but there was no mistake that they had certainly heightened in the past couple of months.

"You didn't say 'hi'," Luke replied. He winced, not particularly caring that Fox probably could see his reflection in the window. That was another thing that had changed. He wouldn't have dreamed of smart-mouthing authority figures. Honor your father and mother and all that, but Luke somehow couldn't bring himself to care as much as he once used to. It scared him a little bit.

"All right, smart aleck," Fox replied. "Something on your mind?" Luke shrugged, turning to dangle his long legs over the side of the appliance. Fox sighed. "C'mon, kid."

"What? I'm not a brat anymore?" Fox chuckled.

"Kid, you're mixing me up with Wolf," he said, stretching out leisurely. "I don't call children brats unless they deserve it." Luke scoffed and allowed a smirk to settle over his features. "So…what are you thinking about?"

Luke shrugged and didn't answer. Fox remained silent. The kids were like clams and the fact that Luke hadn't simply grunted or some other such response was a huge thing. He didn't want to pressure Luke. It wouldn't help the soldiers help them. It drove Fox crazy, but the kids needed to come to them on their own.

"I guess…" Luke started, then stopped. "I guess…I'm thinking about…the nightmares, the danger, Alex-"

"Alex?" Fox hadn't been expecting that. Luke nodded and turned to Fox, brown eyes pleading.

"I don't know how he does it," Luke said. "I mean, I don't know how many missions he's been on, but he takes everything in stride, never misses a beat. How does he handle being in danger every day? I feel like I'm about to lose my mind thinking about it."

Fox nodded. He could understand the feeling well. When they were first out in the field, he remembered looking at the veterans and wondering how they kept their head screwed on all the time when he wanted to lose it. He certainly understood what Luke was thinking.

"It's hard," Fox answered. "Everyone deals with it in their own way." He shot Luke a sharp look. "If you start cutting, we're going to have issues." Luke shot him a nasty look. "Just throwing that out there. Some people will even tell you there's no way to deal with it, you just shove it into the back of your head and forget about it."

"What do you do?" Luke asked, trying to quell some of the desperation he was feeling.

"I write it all down," Fox answered. "It's nothing special, but it helps. I can put it on paper and then try and get it out of my head before going to deal with it on my own time." Luke nodded, hopping off the dryer. He looked at Fox.

"Thank you."

**KLBDKLBDKLBDKLBD**

Woot woot! Two chapters within a few days of each other! Now let's see if I can keep this up…

Review, please!


	10. New Guy Number 2

"Seriously, Tom? I mean, seriously?" Kae spat out another mouthful of soap bubbles into the sink, taking another large gulp of water, pausing long enough to shooting the laughing boy behind her a filthy look. "How-" gurgle, spit "-long have you-" swallow "-been _planning_ this?" She swished the water around in her mouth and spat, glowering at the obscene amount of bubbles.

Tom was too busy busting his gut to answer, so Alex, who barley managing to control his own laughter, answered for him.

"I think he's been planning it ever since you put worms in his socks at the camp," he chuckled. The two boys were sitting on the edge of the bathtub while Kae stood over the bathroom sink.

"You put in my _cereal_," she spat. "That brand of cereal is forever ruined for me."

"More for us," Alex shrugged before snorting. "How you missed him holding the dish soap over your cereal and fairly dousing it with it is beyond me, Kae." Kae would've snarled at him if it weren't for the fact that the soap in her mouth hadn't decided to bubble up at that moment, making her look rabid. She spit the nasty-tasting foam out and reached for her glass again to fill it and take another long swallow.

"I'm going to get my revenge," she threatened. "And you're not safe, either, Alex Rider. Just you wait." Alex was saved answering by the doorbell and he stood, looking out to the hallway where he had a perfect view of the front door. He came in a few moments later.

"Supply man," he told them. Tom was just beginning to calm down. His laughter would peter out and then Kae would spit out another mouthful of bubbles and he would start up again. It'd been going on like this for the past fifteen minutes.

A second later, there came the sound of Wolf's annoyed voice, followed by the indifferent voice of the supply man. The three of them looked at each other for a moment before Tom and Alex headed out to investigate. Kae took another quick swallow and spit it out before following the other two, still grimacing at the taste in her mouth. She was joined by Jessie, James and Luke as they headed to the front room to investigate as well.

The scene they were met with was of Wolf, Snake and Fox standing in front of the supply man, forming a rather intimidating wall of muscle and scowls. Craning her neck a bit, Kae was able to make out a smaller form behind the supply man. A much smaller form that was looking rather intimidated by the aforementioned intimidating wall of SAS soldiers and one spy.

"What is this?" Wolf growled. The supply man was starting to look impatient.

"MI6 didn't have anywhere else to stick him," he snapped as a response. "Right now, you're the number one choice for protection detail. After everything in camp settles down, that'll change, but for now you're it. His name's Wesley Bohr and his last protection detail turned out rotten. I put your supplies in the kitchen." With that, the man turned and stalked out, forcing the boy behind him to scramble out of the way and then away from the three men, backing towards the wall quickly and the teens were awarded their first glimpse of the newcomer.

He had ash-blond hair and silver blue eyes. His clothes were loose, baggy and clearly secondhand. He was string bean skinny and his hair was on the longer side, making him look like he was ten. His eyes were wide and there were bags under them, indicating he hadn't slept recently, or at the very least, not well. Kae thought he looked a bit like a kicked puppy. The look only intensified when Eagle enters the room and joins the other three in staring the boy down. Kae figured the six of them weren't helping.

"Okay," she said loudly. "You four-" she pointed at the soldiers "-cut it out. You're freaking him out. We're probably not helping, but you're far more intimidating." With that, she marched up to the boy and stuck her hand out.

"My name is Kae," she told him. He stared at her hand for a moment before reaching out gingerly and taking it.

"Wesley," he said quietly.

"That's Jessie, Alex, Tom, Luke and James," Kae pointed each of them out. "That's Wolf, Fox, Snake and Eagle. Feel free to call them whatever you like. They won't tell us their real names, so I think if you wanted to call one of them Bobo they would have no reason to object."

"Right." Wesley nodded slowly, not quite sure what to make of the situation. Kae nodded more decisively.

"If you'll excuse me, I need to finish washing the soap out of my mouth," she said and then left the room. Wesley looked as though he'd like to run away as fast as possible. Tom took the initiative and headed up to him.

"I'm Tom," he told him. "Don't pay any attention to her. But we do need to figure out room arrangements. Um…don't take this the wrong way…but how old are you?" Wesley flushed a bright crimson.

"Thirteen," he muttered.

"You look younger," Tom replied. "It means you'll age well, unlike these blokes." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the soldiers, who scowled at the dark-haired boy.

"There's an extra cot in our room," Luke offered. "He can kip in with us." He looked at James, who just nodded.

"Works for me," he shrugged. "You have a much better chance of not getting pranked if you room with us."

"Tom and Kae are the pranksters," Jessie supplied. "I'll get sheets for you."

"Have a seat, Wesley," Fox finally spoke up. "We need to go over a couple of rules. You four, scat." The teens scowled, but dispersed, still casting curious looks over their shoulders at him. "It's nothing major, nothing hard, but just something to establish. One, all of you have chores. You six will have to work that out between yourselves, but there are chores. Second, you don't go out without telling someone. This isn't home. You're in real danger here and it's our job to protect you. And 'someone' consists of one of us four, not by word of mouth through the others. And third, when one of us tells you to do something, you need to do it immediately. And fourth, if you call any of us Bobo, you'll regret it. Understood?"

Wesley nodded quickly, looking as though he wished he were anywhere else in the world. Fox nodded, satisfied.

"Good. Glad we agree. Now then, we'll leave you to get acquainted with the others. Your lot's bedrooms are through that hall, along with your bathroom. This is the living room and the kitchen is through there."

Wesley nodded again and began to tentatively move towards his hall. Fox couldn't help but think that he yelled 'boo' at the kid, he scarper like a terrified rabbit. Instead, they simply watched quietly as Wesley made his way to the hall, not quite facing them, but not quite turning his back, either. Finally, he disappeared down the hallway. Fox was willing to bet he'd end up in the bathroom or the laundry closet.

"Rotten detail, huh?" Eagle was looking at the screen, but he wasn't watching it. "How do we deal with this?" K-Unit had the almost implicit trust of the kids, except for maybe Alex. But something none of them had had to deal with was bad protection.

"Dunno," Fox answered, rubbing the back of his head.

The four men looked at each other silence, unsure of what to do with this new development.

**KLBDKLBDKLBDKBLD**

Okay, there's the next update. Sorry for the lame ending and sorry for taking so long. It's been a busy few weeks. Anyway, let me know what you think!

I'll try and have the next chapter up soon!

Oh, yeah, I should probably add a disclaimer at some point. I don't own anyone except my characters.


	11. Name Guessing With No Responses

Wesley Bohr was many things. He was quiet, he was studious, and he kept his head down and tried not to draw attention to himself. This, of course, drew more attention to him than if he'd simply went about his day. The others simply sat back and watched him. Not in an obvious way but as they helped him assimilate to his new environment.

Everyone was hesitant to be the first to reach out. The supply man had simply said that Wesley was only here until they found new detail for him and nobody was sure how long that would take. The soldiers kept their distance, well aware of his distrustful gaze every time they were near each other. James and Luke privately told the others that Wesley had mostly healed bruises on his torso and a long cut on his back that would most definitely scar.

He sat with the other teens as they worked out new chore arrangements. He didn't offer any preferences himself, instead simply taking whatever they had offered him. He kept as much personal information about himself as quiet as possible, including likes and dislikes. Kae would swear that he was a robot if she hadn't caught him curled up in the laundry closet in the middle of the night after a nightmare, shaking like a leaf. When he'd noticed her, he'd jump a foot in the air before slipping past her quickly back to his room.

Kae suddenly found herself grateful for the fact that she had nine other people she could rely on and that they were still with each other.

"He's so quiet," Jessie whispered as she and Kae worked. They were straightening up their room about a week after Wesley had shown up. The door was cracked and they could hear Tom, James and Eagle in the living room cheering on a football game.

"And that's saying something, coming from you," Kae agreed, tossing a gray shirt in the laundry basket. Jessie cleared her throat pointedly. "Sorry." She reached over and plucked the shirt out of the basket, transferring it over a pile of dark clothes. "Seriously, though. I didn't know it was possible for someone to be _that_ quiet."

"He has a picture of his mom in his suitcase," Jessie told her. "James said he never takes it out, but when he's alone he'll stare at it for ages. He's walked in on him a couple times." She was frowning. "He said it kind of reminded him of you when you were told Spencer died." Kae grimaced before her eyes widened.

"You don't think his mom…" she whispered, her voice dropping so low Jessie had to strain to hear her. She didn't finish, instead opting to draw a finger across her throat.

"I hope not," Jessie replied. "I mean, we've been through a lot, but our families are still alive, at least." Kae nodded in agreement, pulling the sheets off her bed and dumping them in a separate pile. Jessie added hers to the pile and the girls were quiet for a moment.

"Hang on," Kae said a moment later. "How do you know it's his mom?" Jessie yanked the pillowcases off their pillows. Kae dug under the bed for any dirty clothes they might have missed.

"I saw the picture." Jessie sounded vaguely guilty. "After James told me about it, I got curious. So while he was out of the room…"

"You went through his stuff?" Kae hissed. Simultaneously, both their eyes slid towards the door and Jessie went over and shut it.

"I'm awful, I know," she blurted quietly as soon as the door was shut. "But James and Luke couldn't tell who it was and we don't know anything about him and-"

"I'm not mad," Kae interrupted. "Just…surprised. That sounds like something I would do. Or Tom. Or Alex. Or James."

"Or pretty much everyone except me?" Jessie sounded amused. Kae nodded. "I was surprised, too."

"So…how do you know?" Kae prompted.

"It was the picture of a woman on her wedding day," Jessie answered. "It was torn in half and on the back was a date. She got married in 1993. And her first name starts with 'S'."

"S?"

"S."

"Okay, so Sally, Sarah, Samantha, Sandra, Sandy, Susan, Susannah, Sage-"

"Sage?" Kae shrugged.

"I've heard it before. Stacey, Stella, Star-"

"I don't think she was a hippie."

"You never know. Her name could be a misfortunate by-product of the hippie era. Maybe her parents were really old. Sabina, Sabrina, Sadie, Sophie, Sophia, Sakura-"

"She was white, not Asian."

"Dang. Um…Selena, Sapphire, Sasha, Savanna-

"You've clearly put a lot of thought into this for whole thirty seconds that you've known."

"I put a lot of thought into everything, just not necessarily before I do it. Sharona…uh…"

"Scarlett?"

"Scarlett, Shanelle, Shania, Sharon, Shannon, Shawna, Shay-"

"Congratulations, I think you've narrowed it down to nearly every name in the baby book. What are we talking about?" Tom asked, giving a token knock as he came in, carrying a basket of clean clothes. "There are yours. You might want to fold them before they get all permanently wrinkled."

"We're trying to figure out the name of Wes's mom," Kae answered. "Ooh, Shelby, Shelley, Shelia, Sherry-"

"First she's a hippie, then she's Asian and now she's an alcohol. Really, Kae can't you make up your mind?" Jessie asked, dumping the clothes on the bed and beginning to fold them.

"We've got bets on what her name will be," Tom told them, kicking the door shut behind him and settling down on the bed that wasn't being used.

"You're betting on his mom? No wonder he won't talk to us," Kae snorted. "Shirley?"

"No." The answer was simultaneous.

"Sibyll?"

"Where did you get that name?" Jessie asked, passing Kae one of her shirts.

"Harry Potter. The name of the divination professor. Duh. Sierra."

"It's a possibility," Tom shrugged. "How's your quest for the soldier's names going?"

"Long," Kae replied. "I don't think they'll tell me even if I do get it right."

"I don't think they will, either, Kae," Tom snorted. "Need help with any of your laundry?"

"No, because I know what load you'll ask for," Kae told him.

"Which one's that?"

"The same on you always ask for. You're not washing our underwear, Tom."

**KLBDKLBDKLBD**

Okay, so there's a quick chapter for you all! Sorry it took so long. Anyway, review, let me know and all that jazz.

And late Happy Thanksgiving!


	12. Medicine and Housewarming Gifts

So, I was really stuck on this chapter. I have an idea forming in my head, but I don't think the next chapters will come easy until I get it figured out. But if you have anything you'd like to see just let me know!

Happy reading.

** KLBDKLBDKLBD**

Luke wanted to be a doctor. It was what he'd wanted to be since he was twelve and had gone on a field trip to see the body exhibit that had been travelling around the world. It had absolutely fascinated him to see how the body worked. When they got back to school at the end of the day, he'd stopped by the library and had checked out all the anatomy books he could find.

He wanted to become a surgeon of some sort. Possibly an army surgeon, though Luke didn't think he'd last five minutes on the field. But he wanted to help people, help heal them and make them better. He didn't know how, though. And given the turn that his life had taken, Luke had felt that was completely unacceptable.

Which is why he could be found in the laundry closet, perched on the dryer, (where else? Wesley was taking a shower and there was a line after him.) with the first aid kit that was normally under the sink opened up in front of him.

It was an expensive first aid kit. He guessed that was only to be expected. They were staying in the cabin of an MI6 operative, after all. Always prepared and all that. He thought he heard Kae say that was the Boy Scout motto back in America. Or maybe it was something else. He couldn't remember. He could definitely tell that the agent had made some additions. For one thing, the kit was completely repacked in a different way then what you would normally see in the model picture in the stores. For another, Luke was fairly certain that you couldn't find a needle and thread for stitches in normal first aid kits. There were exorbitant amounts of gauze and tape inside, as well as alcohol. Luke picked up one of the bottles and turned it over to study the label on the back, trying to decide if there was a difference between alcohol for medicinal purposes and drinking alcohol.

"If you're going to try and get drunk, might I suggest doing it _outside_ the cabin? Or better yet, not doing it at all?"

Luke jumped, dropping the bottle in his lap and turned to look with wide eyes at the SAS soldier who had walked in on him. Snake had a laundry basket balanced on his hip, his eyebrows raised. Luke flushed and hastily shoved the bottle back in the first aid kit.

"I – I wasn't – "he stopped to clear his throat. "I wasn't trying to get…I wasn't trying to get d-drunk. I was just looking through the first aid kit b-because I wanted to learn more about medicine. It's something that's a bit of a fascination for me and I – sorry. I'll shut up now. " Luke cursed his babbling. His mouth wouldn't stop talking whenever he got nervous and being caught with a bottle of alcohol in his hand, no matter how innocent the intention, was something that made him nervous.

Snake regarded him as he opened up the washer and dumped the basket of clothes in. He added the detergent and started the washer and placed the basket on the shelf above the appliances before he turned to look at Luke. Luke watched him warily.

"You want to be a doctor, then?" Snake asked. Luke nodded. "And I'm guessing that since you haven't exactly been following your normal course studies, you decided to go the less conventional route?"

"Why not?" Luke asked. "We're barely keeping up with our studies now. Alex is lessons behind us and we're lessons behind schedule. I'm not exactly learning anything useful here." Snake chuckled drily.

"Can't really argue with that logic." Luke shrugged, brushing his hair back out of his eyes. He really needed to cut his hair at some point.

"So," Snake said. "Would you be interested in learning how to be a doctor from say…a doctor instead of staring at a first aid kit all day?" Luke grinned excitedly.

"Yeah, I would." Snake grinned back at him.

"Excellent. We can have the lessons in my room. Eagle will be probably be popping in out, though, so just a heads up. And Wolf will glower a lot, but I imagine it'll be more comfortable than sitting on top of the dryer and that there'll be fewer distractions."

"Great," Luke said. "When do we start?"

"Well, do you having a pressing appointment in the next hour or so?" Snake asked.

"Did you just make a joke?" Luke countered.

"Well, that's my answer then. Come on. We'll start with the basics." Luke slid off the dryer and followed Snake down the hall, feeling better than he had in months.

**KLBDKLBDKLBD**

"Kae, you're barmy. Completely barking mad!" Jessie followed Kae through the woods as the shorter girl headed towards the spring.

"I'm not sure what you're referring to, Jess," Kae said cheerfully as she climbed over a long. Jessie followed her.

"Not sure what I'm referring to?" Jessie repeated in disbelief. "This is a horrible idea." Kae laughed.

"Why? You're telling me you don't get tired of interacting with the same people every single day?" Jessie huffed.

"That's beside the point, Kae! The point is, when we decided we _weren't_ going to tell the soldiers there was a man running around the woods we weren't going back to look for him!"

"That was stated nowhere," Kae countered. "Besides-"

"Besides, you said he was dangerous! As in the same way as the assassin back at camp," Jessie argued.

"Yeah, I guess I did say that." Kae took a running start and jumped over a log. Jessie jumped over the log a moment later and quickly caught up with Kae who had stopped to wait for her. "So what if he decides he's had a bad day and doesn't want visitors?"

"That," Kae said. "Is why I brought a housewarming gift along." Jessie stared at her in disbelief.

"You brought a house gift? Since when do you know where he lives?" Kae shrugged. It was then Jessie noticed the package inside Kae's coat tucked under her arm.

"I don't," she replied easily. "But I figure we'll have to run into at _some _point." She snarled under her breath as her foot landed in a puddle of slush, completely soaking her shoe. Jessie skirted around it.

"So basically what you're saying is that your entire plan is to wander around the woods until you find some strange man that may not even be anywhere near here?" Kae stopped to consider this.

"Um…yeah, pretty much," she answered cheerfully. Jessie rubbed her temple.

"I'm going to regret this, but are you bringing him? And why?" Kae shrugged, now carefully checking the ground in front of as she walked, wanting to avoid anymore puddles.

"That football Derek sent me," Kae answered. Jessie snorted.

"You're bringing a Russian a football?"

"Yup."

"Wouldn't a hockey stick be more appropriate?"

"We don't have any of those around the cabin and besides, everyone needs to expand their horizons a little bit," Kae said grandly, throwing her arms out in a wide, encompassing gesture.

"Yeah, that's exactly what needs to happen," Jessie muttered under her breath. Raising her voice, she asked, "So, where exactly are we going?"

"The spring," Kae answered. "It's a nice place, even in all this slush. Perfect place to go if you want to get out and avoid going stir crazy. Nobody to bother you." Jessie made a mental note to check for headache medicine when they got back to the cabin. At the rate they were going, she was going to have a full-blown migraine by the time they made it home.

"So why are we going, again?" Jessie asked pointedly. "Because if we show up there, I'd say there'd be somebody there bothering him."

"Okay, first of all, his name is nowhere on the spring. He doesn't get exclusive rights to it. And secondly, if we're going be sharing a spring, we might as well make nice with the neighbors even if the others don't know it."

"I repeat, you're barking mad," Jessie told her.

"And yet here you are," Kae said smugly. "And here we are." They pushed aside a few branches, dodging the snow that fell from them to enter the clearing around the spring. Jessie had to admit, it was beautiful. Rocks created a natural barrier around it, hiding it from the rest of the world and on the far side there was a frozen waterfall. She could see why someone would want to spend a lot of time there. It was also empty.

"He's not here," Jessie observed.

"Nope," Kae agreed, brushing some snow off a rock and settling down on it. "But I don't have anything better to do today, so I figured I could wait." Jessie cleared another rock and settled down next to her.

"And if he doesn't show?" Jessie asked, settling in for what she was sure would be a long wait. Kae shrugged.

"Nothing better to do. Just come back tomorrow. And maybe think up something more appropriate to give him," Kae shrugged and pulled her knees up to her chest, settling her chin on them and settling in for the wait.

**KLBDKLBDKLBD**

So this chapter was more Luke-centric, but that's okay because I need more Luke.

Okay, so do you want Yassen to show or do you want to make them wait before they get to see him?

In other news: One episode of Dr. Who = hooked. Absolutely love it favorite line: "Don't talk to me about constitutional rights! This is an invasion, plain and simple!"

Also, to **Moe**, I haven't seen it yet :( Message me and tell what it's about :)

Have a Merry Christmas!


	13. The Need For Team Meetings

A/N: If you get confused during this chapter as to the sequence of events, read the author's note at the bottom.

And I lied. This didn't take me nearly as long as I thought it would. Hopefully it stays that way!

**KLBDKLBDKLBD**

Jessie shivered as she sat on the cold stone. She didn't know what had possessed her to come out here with Kae, but here she was, freezing her bum off in the middle of February. Kae must be right. Jessie was desperate for some outside contact. Or she might have a death wish. Really, she didn't know how she wound up in these situations, even if, technically speaking, nothing was happening yet.

Oh, wait. She hung out with Kae. That would explain it.

"How long are going to wait?" Jessie asked, finally standing to stretch and to save her butt from getting frostbite. They'd been sitting out there for a couple of hours and had yet to see hide or hair the man from before.

"Not for very much longer," Kae answered. At some point she had pulled the football out of her coat and was tossing it up and down, looking supremely bored. "It's going to start getting dark and wouldn't _that_ be fun to explain when we got back?"

"Oh, absolutely," Jessie agreed blithely. "What would we tell them? That we got lost or that we were looking for a possibly unstable man who might be an assassin?"

"The first one," Kae replied, standing as well. "And I'm thinking he's retired. Or in hiding. Why else would he be hanging around the middle of nowhere? Catch." She tossed the football to Jessie, who caught with ease.

"Is appropriate to be playing with someone else's housewarming gift?" Jessie paused, holding the ball. "Wait, what do you mean in hiding?" Kae shrugged.

"Well, you said it yourself the first time we met him," she told her. "You said he wouldn't tell anyone about us. What reason could a possible assassin have for not telling someone about the oddball group in the woods? I mean, at the very least he would've done a little bit of research and it couldn't be that hard to find something on us. So, say he did do research, found out what happened at school and made the connection. Why wouldn't he say anything? At the very least to the police, because you know MI6 didn't say anything about where we went. So someone outside SCORPIA is looking for us."

"So he's in hiding," Jessie finished. "Possibly not retired, but in hiding."

"Or both," Kae nodded. She glanced at the shadows elongating and stretched her arms above her head. "But, it's getting dark. We could come back tomorrow?" Jessie shrugged and nodded.

"Do you want to take this back with you or…" She trailed off, gesturing with the football. Kae bit her lip for a moment, considering.

"We'd better," she said. "I'll just try and figure out something more appropriate than a football to give a Ukrainian."

"I thought he was Russian," Jessie countered as the two girls headed back the way they came. Kae looked at her in surprise.

"Was he? I wasn't sure. The best I could guess was Eastern Europe and that's just because I saw that new Indiana Jones movies."

"Ah," Jessie nodded. "I was going off the fact that once we had a Russian missionary stay with us for a week. Their accents sounded similar." Kae laughed.

"Well, I vote we go with real accent heard in real life and not with the most-likely fake accent from a Hollywood movie."

"I'll go with that." Their voices faded away as the conversation turned to Harrison Ford, neither girls noticing the man standing in the shadows watching them.

**KLBDKLBDKBLD**

Wes found Tom in the kitchen. Tom was sitting on the counter reading a cookbook and looking frustrated. Wes stopped in the doorway and stood there for a moment, unsure of whether or not to go into the room. The decision was made for him when Tom looked up, though, and gave him a friendly smile.

"Hey, Wes," he greeted, flipping the next page of the cookbook. Wes gave a quick smile back at him and cautiously entered the room. Tom returned his attention to the cookbook, muttering darkly under his breath. He knew he shouldn't have made that crack about Eagle's cooking. Now he was stuck reading the cookbook and he couldn't understand half the terms in it. What was 'folding' and what did that mean?

He really should've paid attention in home ec. after all.

"What are you doing?" The question was so quiet, Tom almost missed and when he registered that Wesley had willingly spoken to one of them, he had stop himself from toppling off the counter. Tom grinned at him ruefully.

"Well, I told Eagle his cooking sucked and now he's making me read the cookbook," Tom told him. He glanced down at the page he was on. "Right now, I'm reading about Mocha Soufflé."

"Eagle…"

"The one with reddish-brown hair and acts like a five-year-old on a sugar high," Tom elaborated helpfully. Wesley's face cleared instantly as he placed the man. Wes walked around the counter and pulled himself up on the counter opposite Tom and the two boys sat in silence for a moment before Tom spoke again.

"So, you have any family?" Wes stared at him for a moment before shrugging. Tom decided not to press the issue and decided to turn the conversation back towards himself.

"I've got a mum and dad who are waffling around a divorce and an older brother who lives in Italy," he told him. "And then there's Alex, who's like my brother. We did everything together growing up. We could pull the best pranks. Sometimes my brother, Jerry, would help us out with our pranks." Tom started grinning. "One time there was this teacher that nobody liked. I mean, we all hated her. She was the art teacher. Anyway, Jerry set us up with the supplies. It was things like a bucket of paint and some rope. It was just an old prank, but it was fun. We hung the bucket of paint over the door to her classroom and tied the rope to the door handle so that when opened the door the bucket spilled all over her." Tom was shaking with laughter at the memory. "The only downside was that the art room was on the top floor of our school building so when Alex and I set it up, we were stuck in the room. We were serving detention for _ages."_

Wesley was smiling slightly as he watched the older boy. To Tom, though, that spoke volumes. Wesley didn't seem like an overly expressive guy, so him smiling a little bit was like him dying with laughter. Or at the very least, chuckling a little bit.

"Jerry is into extreme sports," Tom continued. "He likes base-jumping and sky-diving and all that stuff. Mum is really into art and Dad owns his own garage. He loves cars."

"What about you?" Wes asked.

"Me?" Tom asked surprised. "Well, I enjoy travelling. I have this whole list of places I want to visit when I get older."

"I like travelling, too," Wes replied. "My mum would take me all over England when I was younger."

"What about your dad?" Tom asked. Wes shrugged.

"He disappeared when I was about seven," he answered. "I just woke up one day and he was gone. Mum was devastated."

"I'm sorry, mate," Tom murmured. Wesley shrugged.

"It's been so long it doesn't really matter," he said, sliding off the counter. "Have fun with the cookbook." Tom snorted.

"Yup, it'll be party in here with me and the cookbook. I was thinking about proposing. Do you reckon it's too early?"

"If it truly makes you happy," Wes told him. "I doubt there is such a thing as too early. Especially if it involves proposing to a cookbook." Tom snickered as he headed out of the kitchen.

**KLBDKLBDKLBD**

Ben rifled through the laundry in the dryer, trying to decide whose it was. He finally came across a shirt he recognized as Tom's. He was the only one in the cabin with a Smerf's T-shirt. He grabbed the laundry basket resting on the shelf above his head and began pulling the clothes out and dumping them in the basket.

The cabin was relatively quiet. Kae and Jessie were out on a walk, Luke was with Jason, James and Marcus were in the living room watching telly, Tom and Wes were in the kitchen and James was in his room doing homework and he was fairly certain Alex was in his room.

Deciding to drop Tom and Alex's clothes off in their room before he started his load of laundry, Ben carried the basket down the hall. The door to their room was cracked and light was off, so Ben forewent knocking and instead eased in quietly. A quick glance at Alex's bed showed him to be sleeping. Ben smiled in relief as he set the basket down on the floor. Alex definitely needed the sleep.

Ben turned to leave when something caught his eye. The door was letting in a bit of light that shone directly on Alex. The teen was sleeping shirtless and that wasn't that unusual. It was the fact that his skin looked like it was different colors and textures. Ben frowned. He was no doctor, but he was more than certain skin wasn't supposed to look like that.

He crept closer, careful not to wake the sleeping boy and crouched down beside his bed to get a closer look. Alex was sleeping on his stomach, but that didn't matter. Ben's eyes widened as he realized that Alex's back was covered in scars, some of which trailed around the side to his stomach.

Ben found himself reaching out to touch a particularly nasty-looking before he stopped himself and stood, swiftly but silently and headed for the door.

There needed to be a team meeting _now_.

** KLBDKLBDKLBD**

Cue: angry protective soldiers O.o

A/N: The events of this chapter are taking place at the same time. So when Kae and Jessie are out, Wes and Tom are talking, Fox walks in on Alex and Luke is learning medicine. Which means next chapter is everyone running into each other after each of these scenes.


	14. He's Supposed To Be Dead

Thank you so far to everyone who's reviewed and put up with my inability to do consistent updates, though I feel like I'm on a roll. So this is what it feels like when I'm on break :D. It's official…school is now blamed for any and all delays in updates.

** KLBDKLBDKLBD **

Yassen wasn't sure what to do with this new development. He knew that there four men and six (seven now) children staying nearby. After he had run across the girls, he had followed their tracks back to the cabin the next day. He hadn't seen all of them that day, but he had heard one of the men telling the other that all six were inside and "Fox" and "Snake" were keeping an eye on them.

Since then, Yassen had kept an eye on the cabin. The soldiers (what else would they be, with codenames like that?) never ventured further than a mile from the cabin, which had puzzled Yassen at first until he realized that the two girls must not have said anything about him. He felt a small flash of gratitude for that. It had taken him a long time to locate the small hunting cabin and he was loathe to leave. For one thing, Feliks had gone through a lot of trouble to make sure that it was ready and for another, he'd gotten rather fond of the solitude. It was also incredibly difficult to find a spot that neither the government nor an illegal organization could find.

What the assassin hadn't realized was that even he needed human contact until he had stumbled across the teens and one of them had actually tried to engage in conversation. Which had led to him actually staking out their place of residence.

He hadn't actually learned very much about them in the weeks that had followed other than the fact the soldiers switched off and on who patrolled, they patrolled every other day and that the brown-haired girl who had tried talking with him liked to take the most walks. Another teen had arrived. Yassen knew who he was. His name was Wesley Bohr and he was very familiar with the Bohr family. He knew nothing about the other four children, though

Today was the day that he'd learned the most, though. And he wasn't sure how he felt about it. What had six teens done to garner the attention of SCORPIA? And how high of a priority were they? Did he need to leave? He made a mental note to get a hold of Feliks later and find out.

Feliks Johannes was a nineteen-year-old genius Lithuanian studying in Russia and the very reason Yassen was alive and free in the first place. When Yassen had been shot, he'd immediately started trying to calm his breathing. There exercises one could do to slow their heart and pulse down and Yassen was employing everything he'd ever learned. However, he knew there was a very real possibility that he would be dead within the next hour, if not sooner, prompting him to tell Alex about his father before he passed out.

When he awoke, he couldn't bring himself to be surprised to find himself in a hospital room guarded by Russian military. Five minutes after he had awoken, a man dressed in fine clothes walked in. He introduced himself as Ivan Mikhail, head of Russian intelligence. He had coldly informed Yassen that he would be interrogated within the next few days and then executed. It would be a swift process.

Two days had passed. Nothing happened. Another day had passed. Yassen felt himself growing anxious as four days went by and nothing happened. No one came to talk to him, the doctors said nothing and the military flat out ignored him, though hostility radiated from them.

Then, on day five, the alarms in the hospital had started going off. The soldier in charge of guarding Yassen had radioed down and a few minutes later, the entire group of soldiers ran down the hall. Yassen watched as patients were wheeled past his room before a young nurse entered the room. At once, Yassen could tell something was wrong. He was too young, too jumpy and his hands were shaking. But he calmed down once he started unhooking the machines and wheeled Yassen's bed down the corridor right past all the other patients, out a side door and into a waiting van.

And then the nurse had simply driven him away from the hospital. He didn't take him to SCORPIA operatives, like Yassen expected. Instead he had driven him out of Moscow and to a small house in the middle of nowhere, where he then introduced himself as he wheeled Yassen into a makeshift hospital in the backroom of a house.

It turned out that Yassen had saved Feliks life when he was younger and Feliks had been…stalking, for lack of a better word, Yassen since. Yassen, personally, had no recollection of doing so, but Feliks seemed adamant that it was him. Which is how he knew where to find Yassen when he wound up in the hospital. He'd been hacking government websites and successfully covering his tracks. And it also explained the why. He felt he owed Yassen a life debt. And Yassen knew exactly how binding those could be.

Yassen had tried to get rid of him, at first. He tried to leave, tried to get Feliks to leave, tried blackmailing him and even at one point, had pulled a gun on the teen. Feliks hadn't even blinked, pointing out that Yassen barely had the strength to hold the gun up, let alone fire without injuring himself further and then what? Feliks would be dead and Yassen would be left by himself and unable to care for himself. He also pointed out that if Yassen tried to leave, he could always find him again. He'd been keeping tabs on him since he was twelve. Which had earned Yassen's grudging respect, because the boy was still alive and had remained undetected for so long.

And for the first time since starting his solo career, Yassen found himself with a partner.

Feliks had informed him that SCORPIA knew Yassen was alive and that they wanted him dead. They hadn't been happy with the outcome of the Cray mission and he'd been labeled an embarrassment. Then he'd disappeared from the hospital and had been labeled a liability. Feliks had sheepishly apologized for that, but Yassen had pointed out he was dead either way and did he always apologize for saving someone's life?

Feliks managed to procure the cabin for Yassen. Yassen had spent the first few months recovering and then it became his hideaway while Feliks tried to erase any trail that Yassen had left behind.

Yassen headed back to his cabin quickly, determined to get in touch with Feliks and find out what was going on.

**KLBDKLBDKLBD**

Ben headed down the hall quickly, barely registering Wesley all but throwing himself in the bathroom to remove himself from the spy's path. He entered the living room. James and Marcus looked up as he entered. Ben didn't need to say anything. They were already standing, the question forming on their lips. Fox only shook his head tersely.

"Meeting. Now," he said shortly, heading for Jason's room. Jason and Luke were sitting on the floor. Jason was in the middle of explaining how to perform triage on someone when he looked up and saw the look on Ben's face.

"-Aaand I think we're done for today, Luke," Jason said, standing. "We'll pick up tomorrow." Luke nodded and headed for the door, frowning as he looked at the soldiers as he squeezed past them. James shut the door behind him.

"What is going on, Ben?" Wolf demanded, slipping into his leader voice. Ben was tense, his jaw set and his mouth in a hard line. He had slipped back into "soldier mode" where when one of _his_ unit was hurt, the perpetrator had best run the other way. Gone was the spy, who looked at everything with cold efficiency. Gone was the civilian, who looked at everything with a sense of black and white, right and wrong, with no grey areas. In their place was the soldier, who looked after his unit, who looked after the men who fought and died with him. Who would do anything to protect them. The others all recognized it. They were all familiar with the feeling and expression. Fox was protecting one of his own.

"Were any of you aware that Cub is _covered_ in scars?" He demanded. "And I don't mean scars that might've happened in an accident when he was younger. I mean like us."

"What do you mean?" Snake demanded, all business. "Describe them." Fox growled.

"He has at least two reaching from his back to his stomach. There are several up and down his back. There are some that look like they came from burns. There aren't any fresh ones, but that doesn't mean anything. My point is, _where did he get them?"_

"When we got their files, did they _anything_ about _any_ injuries?" Snake snarled. He was mad. Eagle was frowning, his brows drawn together in a scowl. Wolf looked ready to punch something. Fox was pacing, his fist clenching and unclenching. Snake stormed over to the bedside table and yanked open the drawer where they kept the files on the kids. He flipped through Cub's, growling when all he saw was the bare minimum and no mention of any previous injuries except for something about a broken arm when he was nine and fell out of a tree.

Wolf took the file and flipped through it, as well. He threw it against the wall in frustration before picking up the files and flipping through them as well, his scowl growing more and more intense with every word he read.

"These kids have more on them than Cub does. Look at James! He's in an abusive home and they've listed every single time his dad's smacked him around! And not a. _Single. Word. On. Cub!_"

"We need to talk to Cub," Snake said abruptly. "We need to find out where those injuries came from and if they're bothering him-"

"No," Eagle cut across them sharply. Everyone stopped and stared at him. "Cub's a private kid. And apparently a messed-up one. We go up to him and start demanding answers, he'll flip out faster than you can say 'yes, sir.' And you know that the others will back him up." Snake looked like he was calming down and taking what Eagle was saying seriously.

"Why would they do that?" Wolf demanded. "If they know he's injured-"

"It doesn't matter," Snake interrupted. "It's basic psychology. If a child is displaced and sent to a foster home, they'll ultimately reject the parents, but they may latch onto a sibling. Right now, in a sense, we're a foster home and the foster parents. They've rejected us, but have latched onto each other. If they feel that something is distressing one of the siblings, they'll do everything in their power to protect them, even if what they're doing is more harm than good. Eagle's right. We can't confront Cub about this."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Fox demanded. He was completely on Wolf's side with this one. He wanted answers, he wanted them now, and he didn't care how they got them.

"Next drop off, we ask for Cub's complete medical file," Snake said. "In the meantime, we do something that should've been done a long time." Wolf growled.

"If you say hug him, Snake, I swear that there won't be enough left of you for MI6 to find with their _best_ forensics."

"No, that's what Eagle's for," Snake brushed off. "We do a basic physical. Just to determine if there are any injuries that need immediate addressing. It will also give us a chance to see if Cub's scars are bothering him at all."

They looked at each other before nodding. It was a plan and that's what they needed.

**KLBDKLBDKLBD**

Luke headed straight for his room and pushed the door open to see James sitting on his bed doing homework. Wes was sitting on his bed reading a book. Both boys looked up as he entered the room. Luke shut the door behind him and turned to James.

"Did you do something to make them mad?" He asked him. James frowned, racked his mind and shook his head.

"No," he answered. "Why?" Luke frowned.

"They're having a meeting in the back," he told him. "It looked serious. Do you know where Tom is?"

"He's in the kitchen," Wes supplied quietly. Both boys' snapped around to stare at him. Wes blushed and dropped his eyes back to his book.

"Thanks," Luke said slowly. He turned to leave. "I'll go get him."

"You want me to go get Alex?" James asked, setting his chemistry book aside and standing as well. Luke shook his head.

"No," he told him. "Go see if you can't spot the girls coming back. Something's up and they might know something about it. Alex is sleeping, so we'd best leave waking him up to Tom." James grimaced in understanding and left the room, heading for the front door. Luke headed for the kitchen in time to see Tom hop off the counter. Tom heard him come in and he turned to face him. He frowned when he saw Luke.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"I don't know," Luke answered. "We need you to wake Alex up. The soldiers are having a meeting and it looked serious. You know anything about it?"

"Nope," Tom shook his head. "I'll go get Al." Luke nodded and headed to the front door just in time to see Jessie and Kae come in. James intercepted them quickly. He spoke quickly and quietly. Luke knew why. The front door was close to the soldiers' rooms and if they didn't want to let them know that they knew something was wrong, they needed to keep quiet. He watched as Kae and Jessie nodded. They pulled their shoes and socks off, throwing their coats over the top of the coat stand and heading back to the rooms. Luke and James followed. They were the last ones in and found Jessie and Kae sitting against the opposite wall, Tom and Alex having taken over one of the beds. Luke and James sat on the bed opposite them.

"Anyone know what put the soldiers in this mood?" Tom started off. Kae and Jessie fidgeted slightly, but nobody paid them much mind except for Alex, who zeroed in on them.

"Jess?" Alex asked quietly. He knew Jessie would break first and she apparently knew something. Really, his girlfriend was ridiculously easy to read sometimes. Actually, all the time, but that was beside the point. Jessie and Kae glanced at each other and then the rest of the room to see every eye focused on them. Kae sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

"Okay," she said. "We might have something. But I don't if that's what this is." Everyone waited for her to speak. "A few weeks ago, Jessie and I were out walking. We ran into this guy. He didn't give his name, he just said he was staying for a while and that he was staying in that hunter's cabin that the driver mentioned our first day here. He didn't say anything else, just left."

"Were you actually planning on telling anyone?" James asked, slightly peeved.

"Nope," Kae answered. "He's in hiding, too, so he's certainly not going to be telling anyone about us."

"Hang on," Tom said. "You said he didn't say anything." Kae shrugged.

"Tom, when you look at him, you can tell that he's different. I mean, he remind the both of us of, uh, what's-his-face…the operative back at camp. Only way better. Anyway, he said he was staying for a while and that he'd been there for a while. He sounded Ukrainian."

"Russian," Jessie corrected. "We talked about this, remember?"

"Oh, yeah. He sounded Russian," Kae corrected. Alex snorted inwardly. From what it sounded like, it seemed like there was a Russian assassin running around the middle of nowhere. He couldn't resist asking.

"Let me guess, he had blond hair, was pale and had blue eyes that looked like ice?"

"Yeah, he did," Kae said, surprised. "How'd you know?" Alex looked ready to choke. "Did you meet him, too?"

"Mate?" Tom asked. He reached over and gently poked Alex, who was staring at Jessie and Kae.

"You're absolutely certain he didn't give his name?" He demanded. Kae glowered.

"We're both certain he didn't give his name, Alex," Jessie cut in swiftly before Kae could say anything. "How do you know him?" Alex pulled his knees up to his chest and dropped his head between them. He stayed like that for a few minutes before he pulled his head back up.

"If we're talking about the same person," he said quietly. "We're talking about Yassen Gregorovich." Tom's eyes widened. Alex had mentioned him briefly after his first mission and after the mission with Air Force One, so Tom at least knew what Yassen was like. What no one was expecting was the clatter from the corner when Wes dropped his book. Everyone looked over at him.

"You know him?" Alex asked, surprised.

"Of him," Wesley whispered.

"How?" Alex demanded harshly. "Because he's supposed to be dead!" Alex's voice had gotten a little bit louder with each word until Tom put a firm hand on his shoulder. Alex bit his lip and quieted down. Wes was shaking, clenching his jeans so tightly his knuckles were turning white. He was staring at the opposite wall, his face a deathly pale color. Jessie stood and crouched next to him. She touched his shoulder gently and he jumped, carefully not looking at her.

"Wes?" She prodded softly. "It's okay." He focused wide eyes on her. "How do you know him?" Wes gulped audibly.

"My mom," he whispered.

**KLBDKLBDKLBD**

WHOOO! An actual backstory! I'm excited, can you tell?

Ha! Mine is an evil laugh! I will now leave you with a cliff-hanger that wasn't even supposed to be there! Mwuhahahaha!

Okay, voting time!

Is Yassen:

Wesley's father (because let's face, he's gotta have at least _one_ kid running around somewhere),

The man who killed his mom

An unexpected friend of the family that actually tries to help but because everything seemed to go straight to hell in Wes's life when Yassen shows up, Wes associates him with him pretty much everything bad that happened in his life which is why he's so freaked out, or

Other (And if you vote this, you have to leave an idea for it.)

That's a hint for you to review! And there need to be at least five reviews with a vote before I'll post the next chapter.

Note: Just because I put option B there doesn't mean Wes's mom is dead unless the votes swing that way.

And on option C I'm stressing the 'unexpected' part. As in, it was _extremely_ unexpected.

This will probably be the last chapter before Christmas, so for real this time: Merry Christmas! :D


	15. Why Wes Is So Quiet

I love starting chapters with italicized words. It makes me feel like I'm writing something that actually suspenseful.

** KLBDKLBDKLBD**

"_Wes?" She prodded softly. "It's okay." He focused wide eyes on her. "How do you know him?" Wes gulped audibly._

"_My mom," he whispered._

There was a moment of shocked silence as everyone gaped at him in surprise. Tom was the first to recover. His jaw snapped shut with an audible _click_ and he shook his head back and forth like a dog trying to clear his head of water. Kae coughed slightly. Jessie stayed very still, though her hand had clenched on his shoulder slightly before easing her grip, though she stayed where she was.

"So wait," James said. "You mean your mum knows him as in knows him or your mum knows him as in _knows_ him?" Wesley glowered at him. If he wasn't a good year younger than them and looked like something other than a puppy, it would've been scary. As it were, if it had been any other situation it would've been amusing.

"According to him, he knew my mum and dad before I was born," Wesley gritted out, annoyance showing through clearly. James held his hands up.

"Sorry, mate," he said in a placating manner. "I was just wondering if…"

"If he was my father?" Wes asked. "I wondered a bit at first, too, to be honest."

"What happened?" Tom asked. Wesley sighed and rubbed the back of his head. He was clearly uncomfortable with all the attention he was getting, but leaving them without answers would probably get him murdered. Besides, maybe, just maybe, they could help. He didn't trust the soldiers at all, but they could understand a little bit of what he was going through.

"About two years ago, this man, Yassen, showed up at our flat. My mum was out at the moment grocery shopping, but he pretty much forced his way into the flat, told me to sit down and said we would wait for her. About an hour later, she showed up. I expected her to be terrified or something, but she just looked at him. He said that they were coming. For a minute, my mum looked happy. Then he said they were coming for me. I guess that meant something bad. He'd come to help us. Mum told me to pack some clothes and to be fast. When we left, she just left the groceries on the floor by the door."

Wes stopped and took a deep breath. Everyone was silent as he closed his eyes and took another breath to recollect his thoughts.

"We lived in Wales, but he drove us all the way to London. It took nearly two and a half weeks because he kept taking back roads and doubling back. I think I only saw him sleep once. We finally arrived in London and he took us to this flat in a bad part of town and told us to stay inside. Then he left. That's when mum sat down and told me that she had met Yassen through my dad when she was younger. She said that he and dad weren't exactly friends, but there was sort of a mutual agreement of sorts between them. She said Yassen could be trusted. We spent a week in the flat. Yassen was trying to find passage for us out of England. He said America or New Zealand would be the best places to send us, but he was looking into alternate regions.

"That's when everything started to go wrong. There was a message slipped under the door a week after we arrived. I don't know what it said. Then Yassen told us that he had found a way out of the country, but there was only passage for one. He also told us that he had a contact in MI6 who could get protection for one us. We'd be safe, but we'd be separated. At first, mum wouldn't hear of it. But a few days after he told us, the building across the street exploded. It was massive. Twenty dead in the initial blast, thirty eight seriously injured, five died en route to the hospital, twelve more died at the hospital." Wesley's voice was monotone as he rattled the statistics off.

"I remember that," Tom said, slowly. "It got a lot of publicity because a bunch city reformists groups were starting up at that point."

"Mum agreed to it after that," Wes continued. "But then we had to figure out who was leaving the country and who was staying with MI6. Mum and I talked about it for ages. We'd make a decision and then she'd change her mind. She was really upset because we were separating. Finally, she decided I would go with MI6 while she left the country. Yassen said they were expecting us to flee the country anyway.

"They wouldn't tell me anything about who was chasing us, or why or where she was going or what flight she was taking. Yassen said that MI6 would ask me questions about her. This way I wouldn't be able to answer them. He wrote MI6 a note and dropped me off at a bank the next day and told me to give the note to secretary and tell her it was for Alan Blunt. He was right. They asked me questions. Lots of questions. I could only answer a couple. Then they put me with an agent. His name was Oliver Morgan. He died. I was put with a new agent. Her name was Cassidy Truman. She died. My next protection was two agents. Eugene Sanders and Marie Keller. They handed me over to who they were supposed to be protecting me from and I finally found out their name."

"SCORPIA?" Kae ventured. Wesley nodded. He looked at each of them in turn.

"Is that who you're in trouble with?" He asked. The teens looked at each other and nodded.

"Well, mostly Alex, a little bit of Kae and the rest of us were just stupid," Jessie elaborated.

"Hey, I was stupid, too," Kae objected. "I mean, who tells the gunmen in their school that they drew a spot-on picture of them so they can be identified later?"

"You."

"Shut up."

"Why Alex?"

"I'm a spy." Wesley stared at him. Alex shrugged. He turned to stare at the rest of them. James nodded.

"It's true," he said. "Alex would disappear from school all the time. We all, ah, started thinking he was a druggie and involved in gangs and stuff."

"Then SCORPIA showed up at our school looking for him," Luke continued. "After that it was kind of obvious as to what was going on."

"So, you're all…?"

"Witnesses to a botched kidnapping attempt," Tom nodded. Wesley snorted. "So you've been in custody for-"

"Coming up to three years," Wesley finished. "I really wish I knew what they wanted with me, but nobody's been exactly forthcoming with information."

"Well, you know…" Kae drawled. "The guy is here, about six miles thataway somewhere." She moved her hand in a circular motion. "We could go _ask_ him." Everyone stared at her. Alex's eyebrows were raised as he regarded her.

"Kae," Alex said. "You do realize that you're suggesting we go track down a dangerous assassin-"

"He's an _assassin?_" Wesley squeaked. Everyone else gaped at Alex.

"I didn't expect to be _right!_" Kae yelped. "I just thought he liked ballet or something!" Suddenly Wesley snorted. Everyone turned to stare at him. He was shaking with laughter.

"A wanted assassin wrote me a note to give to the head of MI6," he giggled. "He wrote me a note about me. Isn't that something a parent would do for the principal or something like that?" He was pretty much collapsed with laughter. Jessie's lips were starting to twitch upward and Alex was starting to grin.

"Can you imagine the look on Blunt's face when he opened it up and read it?" He asked. "It was probably the only time Yassen willingly contacted him."

It didn't take much longer for the rest of them to lose it.

**KLBDKLBDKLBD**

Okay, so I'm finishing this chapter here. Hopefully, this'll get me back on track on what I had originally planned out because this whole thing was an unexpected detour. I hate it when my characters don't behave.

And now you have some of Wesley's backstory. You'll get the rest later on!

Annnd…please review!


	16. It'll Be Okay

Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed! I'm sorry this chapter's short, but I'm trying to get back on track with my original plotline, because that last chapter was not expected.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

**KBLDKBLDKBLD**

The next two weeks that followed were tense. Both teens and adults knew the others were keeping something from them, but they didn't know what and neither were willing to ask straight out. Even Kae was subdued in her persistent questions. She had stopped trying to guess their names and now kept silent. She'd stopped taking walks, as well as Jessie. Luke continued learning from Snake, but even that had a bit of an edge to it. The only bright thing to come out of this was that Wesley was opening up to them.

"We need something," Snake said quietly to the supply man. He was a new one, not their usual one. Snake wondered briefly about this before pushing the thought from his mind. He had to be quick. The teens were in the back, with Wolf and Eagle discreetly keeping an eye out for them. "And you need to take this directly to…" He hesitated, not sure who exactly this request would need to be cleared by.

"Jones. Mrs. Tulip Jones," Fox cut in smoothly. Snake shot him a grateful look before continuing.

"We need the full medical file of Alex Rider," he said. "The one we have is incomplete. And that will need to include any psychological reports. Of all of them." The man looked at him for a moment before nodding.

"I'll see what I can do," he said. "But I can't promise anything."

"That's all we need," Fox said. He nodded to Wolf and Eagle and they joined them in the kitchen. "Thank you, ah…"

"Kelly. Matthew Kelly."

"Thank, Mr. Kelly." Matthew grinned.

"Please, call me Matt," he told them. "Listen, can I use your loo before I go? Bit of a drive back."

"Sure," Fox nodded. "Down that hall, across from the laundry closet." Matt nodded his thanks and left the kitchen.

**KLBDKBLDKLBD**

"Look, Kae hasn't been going on her walks, so if we all disappear for a walk all the sudden, won't it look a bit suspicious?" Tom asked, standing and stretching.

"Truthfully, I think they'll just be happy we're getting out," Luke shrugged. "Snake's been dropping "hints" during our lessons."

"It doesn't matter how suspicious they get, we've still got to talk to him," James said. "Simple as that."

"I'm not saying we don't have to talk to Yassen," Tom countered, opening the door. "But if we all go at once, it may look weird. I'm getting something to eat." He stepped out into the hall and froze upon seeing a strange man standing in the hall. He jerked the door shut completely, his hand gripping the handle tightly.

"Hello," the man said cheerfully. "My name's Matt. I'm your new supply man." Tom frowned and shifted back slightly.

"What happened to the old one?" He asked.

"He took a bit of a holiday," Matt told him. "I'm not sure how long he'll be gone." There was silence as Tom simply stared at him. "Um…I'm looking for the loo. Is it through one of these doors?"

"You passed it," Tom answered slowly. "It's through that door there." Matt turned to look at the door Tom indicated.

"Ah, there it is!" He said. "Thanks, mate." He turned and disappeared through the door. Tom headed to the kitchen to find all the soldiers gathered there. There was silence as Tom rooted through the fridge. He finally turned around with an apple clutched in his hand.

"There was a new supply man," Tom stated.

"Yep," Snake agreed.

"He's using the loo."

"Brilliant deduction." Tom frowned.

"Did the old supply man say anything about him being on a holiday?"

"No," Wolf said gruffly. Tom shrugged.

"Okay." He turned and left the room.

"Oi, Tom," Wolf called him back. Tom poked his head in. "Snake's going to be giving you lot physicals at some point. Let the others know, yeah?" Tom's face darkened a bit, but he nodded.

"Sure thing," he answered. The bathroom was empty when he passed it and Tom assumed the man left. He entered the bedroom to find the others still in discussion about what to do. Alex glanced up at him and frowned.

"Alex," Tom said. "They're going to be giving us physicals." Alex went still. Jessie glanced between him and Tom, as if debating whether or not to go to Alex before settling back. This was obviously something between them. Alex was staring intently at Tom, who met his gaze evenly.

"Pull it together, mate," Tom said finally. "You can just say classified, you know. It's okay." Alex nodded jerkily.

"It's gonna be okay," Tom repeated softly.

**KLBDKLBDKLBD**

"They're not happy." Snake's voice was quiet. They were still in the kitchen. Silence reigned over the cabin.

"At least now they have some warning," Eagle finally said, shrugging. "I mean, at least now we're not going 'hey, you lot, you're all getting looked over today, hope you don't mind!' That'd be a smashing hit."

"Should we wait until the next drop off?" Fox asked.

"No," Wolf spoke up. "We still need to know if there's anything bothering them right away because the files were incomplete."

"More like Cub's," Eagle snorted softly, taking a sip of his water.

"Well, we're lacking in everyone else's psychological reports too, didn't you notice?" Wolf snapped. "Physically they're fine, but mentally they're obviously not. I mean let's face, we don't know the first thing about what happened or how they ended up in this entire mess and they won't bloody talk to us!"

"Wolf, calm down," Snake said quietly. "We'll figure it out.

**KLBDKLBDKLBD**

Again, sorry it's so short! I wanted to get at least one more up before I go back to school, but I'll try and get another chapter up. We go back the third, so no promises, but I'll try!

And yes, I'm giving Tom a bigger role in Alex's mental well-being. So far what I have him being is sort of Alex's grounding, the person who kind of pulls him back if he starts freaking out. Alex is more secretive because he's worried that if someone finds out about any injuries/scars that he has they'll try to use them against him. That's including mentally, so Tom is kind of really important to Alex and his wellbeing. I'll try and elaborate on this more later on.

Wow, this got a bit more complicated.

Review, please!

Happy New Year!


	17. Physicals

"All right, you lot, we need you to head to the kitchen," Eagle said, poking his head into Jessie and Kae's room, not bothering to knock. Seven heads swiveled around to look at him, their expressions varying to downright stubbornness to apprehension. "Don't look at me like that. Snake just wants to look you over, make sure you're fit."

"None of us have dropped over dead yet," Kae said, frowning. "Why now?"

"Because, dare I say it, we're worried about you and you haven't had anyone look you over since you left the hospital. Now if you don't mind, we'll take volunteers, but if not we can assign an order."

There was silence as everyone looked at each other, as if debating whether or not it was worth it to resist or to simply go along with it. Eagle shifted. The soldiers couldn't force the teens to have a physical, but he hoped they didn't realize that. He was counting on Jessie to break the ice since she seemed to have a knack for knowing what would make everything run smoothly in the cabin and implementing them.

"I'll go first, then," Jessie said, rising to her feet smoothly and heading towards the door. Eagle breathed a quiet sigh of relief and stood aside to let her pass. Jessie walked down the hall towards the kitchen. Snake was standing by the counter. She stopped just inside the doorway and Snake smiled at her reassuringly.

"This is just like a basic sports physical," Snake told her. "I'm just going to check your heart rate and mobility."

"All right then," Jessie nodded and moved closer. She sat down on the chair indicated and Snake placed his stethoscope against her chest.

"Heart rate's all right," he muttered after a minute. He stepped back. "Now then, if you could walk to that counter and back." Jessie walked across the room. "Bend over, touch your toes." She did. "Good. Now, then, do your scars bother you?" Jessie turned sharply to face him.

"What?" Her voice was clipped and guarded. Snake stepped back slightly. Aside from her tone, Jessie had given no indication that the question bothered her, but Snake could tell he was treading in dangerous territory here.

"Your scars," he prodded gently. "Do they bother you?" He watched her start rubbing her wrists unconsciously.

"No," she answered, looking at a point just past his shoulder. "Not…not really." She wasn't looking at him and she rubbed her wrists a little harder. A frown was tugging at her lips, causing her forehead to wrinkle.

"Jessie?" Snake said gently, trying to get her attention. "Jessie." Her eyes snapped to him. "Are you okay?" She looked a little pale and her smile was forced.

"Yeah," she replied. "Yeah, I'm fine." She cleared her throat. "Is there anything else?"

"Are you sleeping?" He asked her. She shrugged, leaning against the wall. She crossed her arms. Classic defense position. Snake eyed her.

"Sleeping well enough, I guess," she answered. She clearly didn't want to talk anymore, but Snake wasn't letting it go that easily. He gestured towards one of the chairs. She stared at for a moment, as if deciding whether or not it was worth it to sit down or if she wanted to simply stand. Finally, she moved over and sat in the proffered seat. Snake sat down across from her, studying the redhead carefully. Her face was slightly pale and there were bags under her eyes, but they were smaller than they used to be.

"Nightmares settling down?" He asked. She shrugged again, looking out the window.

"A bit, I suppose. They're less frequent. I don't remember them at any rate." Jessie hugged herself tighter.

"Small mercy in itself," Snake muttered to himself. "All right, Jessie. Thank you." He stood up.

"We're done?" She asked, looking up at him. Snake looked down at her. She was simply watching him, not a hint of anything on her face. He remembered a time when the mere sight of him was enough to make them to at least jump when he did something unexpectedly. Now, she, at least, was comfortable enough with them to fall asleep while they were in the same room as her. He knew Kae was, as well, because the two of them had done it multiple times before. He wondered if it was a female thing that made them trust more easily.

"You're done," he confirmed. She nodded and stood, heading for the door. "Send in whoever's next."

"All right then," she agreed and left the room. Eagle, Wolf and Fox were nowhere to be seen as she walked through the living room and headed towards her bedroom. She shut the door behind her and looked at the rest of them. "It someone else's turn."

"What'd they do?" Tom asked. Jessie sat down on the floor beside the door.

"It was Snake," she answered. "It was like a sports physical, really. He asked me couple of questions and let me go."

"That's it?" James looked around at the rest of them. "That doesn't sound too bad." Luke was studying his cousin closely.

"What did Snake want to know?" He asked. Jessie shrugged. She rubbed her wrists again slightly as she considered the physical.

"Just if my scars bothered me and if I still had nightmares," she finally answered. "After that, I was done." She looked around at them. "One of you had best go, else they'll come looking for us." Kae stood.

"I'll go," she said. "Give the rest of you lot time to prep yourselves." She headed for the door, but stopped when she felt eyes on her back. She paused and turned to face them.

"What?" She asked.

"You said 'you lot', Kae," James answered. Kae frowned at him.

"What? No, I didn't," she scoffed. "I said…" She trailed off and her eyes went wide. "Oh my… I did!"

"Yeah, yeah, you did," Tom agreed. Kae coughed slightly.

"Weird," she muttered. "Okay, well I've got to go." She shut the door behind her and bounded to the kitchen. None of them wanted to have to do this, but she wasn't going to go in acting apprehensive. She danced into the kitchen and plopped down in the chair, turning to look at Snake expectantly. Snake regarded her and for once, Kae couldn't read anything from his expression. Finally, she cleared her throat.

"So, Hank, what are we doing today?"

"My name's not Hank," Snake informed her. Kae huffed and leaned back, crossing her legs and arms and pouted.

"Snyder."

"Walk across the room and back, Kae, please." She pouted again and stood.

"Spoilsport."

"There are five more to go through and you're dragging it out." Kae dragged her feet, moving as slowly as she could without giving Snake probable cause to tell her to move faster. When she reached the counter and turned around, Snake looked like he wanted to snap at her. She simply gave him her widest smile and began the slow walk back.

"So, what made you guys decide to give us check-up now?" She asked.

"Didn't Eagle tell you?" She shrugged. "Touch your toes."

"He did…but we've been here for about what…two months now?" She bent over and then sat down before he could do anything.

"We're just doing our job, Kae. That's all there is to it," he answered.

"And I'm actually the Queen of England."

"God save our country."

"You're Scottish."

"I live in England most of the time. How are you sleeping?"

"Like how I always sleep." Snake raised an eyebrow and leaned back in his seat. He would sit here all day if he had too. Kae was crazy if she thought she could outlast him. After about five minutes she sighed and glared at him.

"Fine. I'm still having nightmares, but they're not as bad as they used to be." Snake nodded. "And I don't remember them." She was lying, he could tell that, but he didn't call her on it. He only nodded and She looked at him. "What, you're not gonna psychoanalyze me or something like that?" He put the stethoscope against her chest.

"Nope. We leave that Eagle." She stared at him.

"Eagle?"

"Yes, Eagle. He took a psychology class at uni. You're done." She stood up and headed for the living room, not looking back. Wolf poked his head out of the bedroom and looked at him questioningly. The other three had decided to make themselves scarce, hoping to get the teens to relax a bit. Snake shook his head in the negative and a look of frustration passed over Wolf's face before he disappeared again. Snake ran a hand over his face as James came out.

000

"How do you think they're going?" Eagle asked, bouncing slightly with impatience. Wolf frowned. Eagle had asked the question about ten times in the last fifteen minutes and he knew Fox was about five seconds away from smacking the younger man upside the head. He debated letting him do it, but decided as team leader it was his job to diffuse the situation. He placed a hand on Eagle's shoulder and forcibly made him sit down on the bed.

"We don't know, Marcus. We'll find out when Jason is done," he answered patiently. "Now shut up." Okay…so not as patient as he would've liked, but still. Ten times in the last fifteen minutes. He didn't think any of God's saints could survive that. Wolf was impressed that he managed to survive this long, to be honest.

They listened to the footsteps of the second teen receding. Fox figured it was one of the girls. It was too light to be any of the boys'. He wasn't sure which girl it would be, though. Jessie's footsteps were already impossibly quiet and Kae had gotten much better at walking quietly, plus he knew the first one to do a physical was Jessie, courtesy of Eagle.

A moment later, they heard heavy footsteps walking down the hall. That was James. Out of all of the boys, James was the biggest, being built more like a football player while the other three were skinnier. He had the heaviest footsteps.

James's physical didn't take nearly as long as the last one, though when he came back down the hall, they could hear him swearing silently. Curiosity was eating Wolf up, but he knew better than to go seek answers now. For one thing, when Snake was working he didn't like to be disturbed. Secondly, they could already hear the next teen heading down the hall. It sounded like they were trying to speed up the process and simply get the physicals over with.

Wolf didn't blame them. This wasn't pleasant for any of them and they were all eager to get it over with.

000

The room was a bundle of nerves and the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. James had come back swearing. Jessie was sitting next to Alex, tucked against his side, his arm around her, holding her close. Alex's form was radiating tension. He was actually gripping her a little too tightly, but she kept quiet. He was nervous about the physical and she wouldn't begrudge him any help she could give. Tom was sitting on his other side, forcing jokes and trying to keep the atmosphere light. Kae was sitting next to James.

Apparently, Snake had noticed a scar on James' wrist and had inquired about it. James had dismissed it, but Snake had noticed another one on the opposite arm, prompting him to ask about his home life. James, at that point, had stood up and walked out. Snake had let him leave without comment. James wouldn't be receptive to anything Snake did or said at that point and if he did try anything, the teen would lash out.

Luke had headed out next, hoping to create some sort of buffer between the more stressful physicals. Wesley would go out next, then Tom, then Alex. Alex knew that he should go out sooner, get it over with, but he had no desire to do so. For once, just this once, he would indulge and not do something completely responsible.

Luke's went longer than James', but not as long as Kae's. Wes stood and headed out of the room. He was pale and there was a slight tremor in his hands as he pulled the door shut behind him. The walk down the hall seemed to take forever. When he entered the kitchen, Snake was seated in one of the chairs, the stethoscope lying on the table. Wes stopped at the entrance to the kitchen and when Snake's eyes found his, he averted his gaze hastily.

"Have a seat, Wesley," Snake said, trying to break the awkward silence and trying not to appear intimidating. Judging by the way the boy was holding himself, though, it wasn't working. He perched himself on the edge of the chair, prepared to bolt at any minute should Snake startle him. Snake was reminded of a skittish colt.

"I'm going to check your heart rate, Wesley," Snake said to him, moving his hands slowly and making sure Wes could see them at all times. The thirteen-year-old's eyes were fixed on his hands, not watching Snake's face at all. _Bad move, kiddo. That's where all the real action is_. He placed the stethoscope against his chest and listened to his thundering heartbeat.

"Seems normal," he said casually, withdrawing from his personal space. It was anything but normal, but Snake knew it was because of his presence, not a medical condition. Wes's body relaxed just a bit as he did so. "Can you walk the length of the room for me and then touch your toes?" Wesley all but shot out of his chair to do as Snake requested, crossing the room in record time and touching his toes before rocking his body back away from Snake toward the doorway, hoping to be let go. Snake hadn't moved through the entire ordeal, only watching him.

"Next time, Wes, when you're with someone you don't trust, watch their face as well as their hands. Their face will be the best indication of what they will do next." Wes's body tensed before relaxing again marginally and nodding. "You're free to go." Wesley scurried backwards and down the hall.

Tom's was nowhere near as bad as Wesley's or James'. He came in, cracking jokes all the while at Snake, who in turn would glare or return depending on what he said. He took his time walking the length of the room and touching his toes and then he took at least five minutes sitting down. Snake didn't know it was possible for someone to drag the action of sitting down for so long. He not-so-politely to Snake to back off when he asked about his nightmares and then left before Snake could formulate another question.

When Alex came in, his body radiated just as much tension as Wes's, though he hid his better. He regarded Snake warily, though Snake made no move towards him. Snake hadn't had much time to think about how he was going to go about this. The goal was to get Alex to say something about his injuries and Snake had to be subtle as he went about it. As they stared at each other, Snake decided to have him walk the room first. That way if Snake did something to upset him, at least he would be able to tell whether or not Alex was suffering from old injuries.

"Just walk the length of the room, Cub," Snake told him. Alex walked stiffly and Snake noticed the teen was watching every reflective surface, keeping an eye on Snake to make sure he didn't do anything. When he was done, he stood in front of Snake, just out of his reach. Unlike Wes, Alex knew exactly where to watch and when Snake gestured for him to sit down, Alex pointedly pulled the chair out range of Snake before he did so.

"You know, Cub, I need to check your heart rate," Snake told him. Alex's eye narrowed, and Snake pointedly kept his face unapologetic. Alex grudgingly scooted closer and Snake did the same as he did with Wesley, making sure that Alex could see his hands the entire time.

"How are your nightmares?" Snake asked. Alex shrugged. "Have they gotten better?" Alex gave a slight jerk of the head that could've meant anything from "yes" to "no" to "bugger off." Snake sighed inwardly. Alex wasn't going to make this easy. But he needed something from the boy. He chose his next question carefully. "Do you still hurt anywhere?" Alex's eyes snapped to his instantly and Snake watched his face go a little pale. Alex thought he knew, he realized. And Snake was not above using that. He gave a small sigh when Alex remained silent and spoke again, going for exasperated.

"Alex, you might as well tell me. I need to know if any of your old injuries are bothering you. Especially the ones on your chest." He was taking a shot in the dark. He didn't actually know if Alex had any on his chest, but going by how rapidly Alex's face lost all its color, he was going with a 'yes.' Abruptly, Alex stood up, knocking Snake's hand away. Snake watched him going, feeling like he'd learn more about Alex in a one-sided conversation than he had in any real conversation he'd had with him.

It was an unsettling though.

**KLBDKBLDKLBD**

Okay, sorry it took so long for me to post this! It's a bit longer, though I will admit that I glossed over some of the physicals. I was worried that it would get repetitive and nobody likes that.

Hopefully I'll have the next chapter up quicker than this, though I had the rest of the story all planned out on paper and then I proceeded to lose it, so we'll see :P

Anyway, let me know what you think!


	18. Slim to None

Luke stared at the fair-haired man, doing his best not to breathe. He was certain he was looking at Yassen Gregorovich and he did _not_ want to be noticed by the assassin. The man was crouched by the spring, staring into the water intently, as if it held all the answers of life in its depths. Luke could've told him it didn't. He tried that sort of thing all the time back at the camp, but the lake had never yielded any answers.

He'd come out here, hoping to escape the stifling atmosphere of the cabin. The soldiers were hushed and Tom and Alex had barricaded themselves in their room. James was working on homework and not speaking to anyone, not even Kae, and Wes had disappeared into the bathroom. Jessie and Kae were shooting everyone worried looks and talking in quiet voices. Luke finally couldn't take it anymore and pulled his coat, told Snake he was taking a walk and left the cabin as quickly as humanly possible. When he'd gotten the spring however, he'd quickly decided that maybe leaving when he knew there was an assassin running around was a bad idea. Which how he was stuck crouching behind some bushes, watching the infamous man and marveling at how _normal_ he looked.

"I know you are there." Luke jumped, having not expected the man to speak and certainly not to him. Luke debated whether or not to answer, but the decision was taken out of his hands by Yassen's next words. "Come out now and spare yourself the trouble of making me come fetch you." Luke thought briefly of running, but he had no doubt that Yassen would give chase and would catch him. Luke was also certain it wouldn't be much of a chase and would catch him easily. And Luke really didn't want to find out the consequences of disobedience. Slowly, Luke emerged from his hiding place, trying not to let the man's gaze disconcert him.

It wasn't working very well.

Okay, maybe now that he was looking at him levelly, maybe not so normal. Luke could definitely tell what Kae and Jessie meant when they had he looked dangerous. They stayed that way for a long time, Luke fidgeting, but meeting Yassen's gaze at the very least, and Yassen taking his time and studying him carefully. Finally he spoke.

"Are you related to the red-haired girl?" Luke blinked, expecting a question, but not that one. However, he would not be giving up information about his cousin. He clenched his jaw shut and glared. Yassen remained impassive, but he was looking at Luke carefully. "I know fifty-seven ways to kill you with my bare hands. All of them slow, all of them painful. Please, answer my question." Luke shook his head. Yassen stalked towards him slowly, allowing Luke to notice just how much taller and broader he was than Luke and allowing him to notice the amount of dangerous intent in the man's body. Luke resisted the urge to take several steps back. He stopped right in front of Luke, staring him down. Luke swallowed, not caring it was audible.

"What is your name?" Luke figured that was an okay question to answer.

"Nngh." His throat clearly didn't agree. Luke flushed a bright red and opened his mouth to try again and he managed to force his name out. "L'ke." Well, part of his name. He managed to make himself sound mentally-handicapped this time. It seemed as though Yassen understood, though.

"Luke. Are you related to her? If you will not tell me, I am able to find out by other means." Luke scowled before nodding slowly.

"Why do you want to know?" He demanded. Yassen turned away from him, but Luke didn't think for a minute about trying to leave. Yassen had turned his back because he was the one who in control here and Luke wouldn't be moving until he said so. Yassen settled on a rock while Luke watched him warily.

"The two of you look very much alike. And I like to know about my neighbors," he answered. It was all Luke could do not to snort. "You can sit down." Luke was certain he caught a bit of amusement in Yassen's voice, but he wasn't sure. Hesitantly, he headed to the nearest rock and sat down, looking as tightly coiled as a spring. He couldn't understand why Kae would say he didn't seem like he wanted to hurt them. He'd managed to threaten Luke with five minutes of meeting him! Luke felt that a very serious discussion with Kae about the definition of 'not wanting to hurt them' was due in the very near future.

"Are you her brother?" Luke shrugged, neither confirming nor denying it. Yassen's eyes narrowed, studying him intently before smiling in satisfaction.

"You do not look enough alike to be. You're cousins. Tell me, Luke, why are you so reluctant to answer my questions?" Yassen abruptly switched the topic and Luke found himself stumbling over words before he could think about not answering.

"B-because," he stuttered out. "I just met you. I don't know you, I'm not-" _not supposed to know_ "-I don't know your name, you more or less threatened me with bodily harm even though he said you-" Luke bit his tongue so hard he tasted blood. Yassen was in front of Luke before he registered the man was moving.

"Who?" Yassen demanded. "Who said what about me?" His hands were gripping Luke's shoulders tightly enough that Luke was certain he'd have bruises tomorrow. Luke gave a token struggle, knowing it would be pointless but he gave a shot anyway. Yassen's hands tightened and he bent so he could look Luke in the eye. "It would be unwise for you to struggle and unwise for you to remain silent. So I will ask the question once. _Who are you talking about?"_ Luke stared up at Yassen with wide eyes.

"Um…no one?"

000

"I'm not surprised that they all have at least somewhat obvious abrasions," Ben said, passing a mug of tea to James, who accepted it gratefully. "What I don't understand is their reactions to the physicals." He finished passing out the tea and sat down next to Marcus. Marcus was subdued, stirring his tea idly and lending half an ear to the conversation. Any one of his teammates could tell someone that when Marcus was quiet like that he was either thinking really hard or upset about something. Right now, it could've been a combination of both.

"It makes a little bit of sense, in some of their cases," Jason said thoughtfully, his tea going ignored in favor of playing with his pen and doodling idly on a napkin. It wasn't anything in particular, but he just wanted something to do with his hands. "Like James, when you look at his home life, and Tom's. I'm fairly certain only Luke, Jessie and Kae come from fairly stable homes." He looked sharply at his teammates. "And I did say 'fairly' stable, just to clarify."

"And the new kid?" James asked. Jason shrugged.

"I'm not sure yet. He came from a single parent home, his mom, but his last protection detail was rotten. Who knows what happened to him?"

"We sure don't," James snorted. "Nobody tells us anything." Ben hummed in agreement.

"I got something from Alex, though," Jason continued. "I may have implied that we knew about his injuries. About the ones on his chest. Going by his reaction, he wasn't expecting that and he left. Rather quickly."

"So he does have injuries?" Marcus looked up here, finally jumping in on the conversation. Jason took a sip of his and looked over at their youngest teammate.

"I'm almost certain he does. He wouldn't have reacted the way he had if he hadn't. But he doesn't want us to know about them." Jason studied Marcus closely. "Why? What are you thinking?" Marcus stared determinedly at his tea, thinking carefully before he spoke.

"Where would Cub have gotten all those injuries?" He asked. "You know it can't have just been sports accidents. And we saw him at Point Blanc, so that explains some of it, and Ben, you said you met him on a mission, but he can't have done more missions, could he?" Ben's face hard turned stony.

"Alex said he was working a mission separate from mine when we met, for the Australian government. Ours overlapped." His former unit was listening intently. This was the most Ben had ever told them about any of his missions. "If he's being loaned out to foreign governments there's no reason for him not to have done more missions." Jason and James snarled simultaneously and Marcus slammed his mug down, his face morphing into a scowl.

"What the hell have they been doing to him?"

"Umm…Eagle?" The anger that was close to boiling over was reigned in as they all looked at Kae and Jessie, who were standing in the doorway, watching them uncertainly. The sight of the two of them was enough to calm the four men. There was something slightly knowing in the girls' eyes that hinted they had overheard the latter part of the conversation and knew something they didn't, but Jason doubted they would say anything if the soldiers tried to press them.

"Yes, Kae?" Marcus was keeping his voice tightly controlled and they could tell. The girls glanced at each other before Jessie spoke, sounding more hesitant.

"We were wondering any of knew where Luke went?"

"He took a walk," Marcus answered. His eyes slid to the wall clock. "He left about a half hour ago."

"Thanks," Jessie said and they started to withdraw before Jason spoke.

"You two don't know of anything that may be happening with Cub, do you?" The look they shot each other indicated yes they did know something, but the guarded looks they wore when they turned back to the soldiers said no they wouldn't tell them.

"No," Kae answered after a small pause. She allowed a look of confusion to settle on her face. "Why? Do you think something's wrong?"

"No," Jason reassured her. "Just wondering." They were silent until they heard their bedroom door shut.

"They know something," James said automatically as soon as he was certain they were out of earshot. "They have too. They don't do anything without the other."

"We know, James. You're not the only one with eyes." Ben sounded frustrated. "The problem is getting somebody to say _something."_

"And the odds of that happening are?" Marcus asked rhetorically. He was answered anyway.

"Slim to none. If that."

000

"Mr. Blunt." Alan Blunt looked up at the young secretary standing in his doorway. She held a file in her hands and he nodded for her to come closer. She did so, her heels clacking on the floor and set the file on his desk. "This just came from Agent Williams."

"Thank you, Samantha," Blunt said and she left. Blunt turned his attention to the file. Williams was one of their best operatives is SCORPIA and he only updated if he found something of extreme importance. Blunt flipped through the folder, frowning as he read the contents. The only thing in here was that SCORPIA had some unexplained pick-up in activity. That wasn't that unusual, but Williams wouldn't have contacted them if he didn't think it was important. Blunt frowned as he read the words at the bottom. _'Will investigate further.'_

He really didn't like the feeling he was getting.

000

Ta-da! I'm really sorry it took so long to update! I didn't not mean for it to be over two months or a month or however long it was! I didn't mean to take so long!

Forgive me and leave a review?

Oh, and you should know that KidLifeBadDream doesn't include Scorpia Rising, because sadly, I haven't read it yet, so if my story doesn't match up with what went on in the book, this is why.


	19. Next Time Just Answer the Questions

Luke realized belatedly that maybe he should've just answered Yassen's questions. It would've made his life much, much easier. Though, to be fair, if Yassen hadn't already checked out where they were staying and didn't know who all was actually in the cabin, that was his own fault and Luke wasn't really all that impressed with his skills. Not that he would be saying that out loud any time soon, of course. The man that was currently steering him through the woods looked like he was in a bad mood and Luke had no desire to poke at his temper any further than he had.

He stumbled slightly as they climbed over a log. Yassen had him by the scruff of the neck, his face drawn in a tight line, though he eased up a bit when Luke nearly fell on his face. His grip, however, remained tight and Luke winced. He was sure there would be bruises tomorrow.

Luke was confused as to where they were going until he saw the cabin and he dug his feet in, just a bit. Yassen's face morphed into a bigger scowl and he gave a particularly hard yanked that caused Luke to yelp and nearly crash into the man, but he managed to twist his body enough that he was swinging to the side, the grip on his arm the only thing keeping him up. Yassen stopped and allowed him to right himself before continuing to the cabin.

_I'm going to die_, Luke thought, with a touch of hysteria. The sheer amount of abject terror he felt when Wolf had cornered him in the bathroom looking for his pants didn't even come close to what he was feeling now. Luke was pushed none-to-gently through the door and he fought the urge to head to the opposite corner of the room, instead choosing to stand in the middle of it where he had wiggle room if he needed it. Yassen locked the door behind him, the lock clicking ominously. Luke fancied his life was about to end with that sound. It was unnaturally loud in the silence surrounding them.

"Sit." Luke considered disobeying him, but instead headed to the chair. What was the point now? He wasn't getting past the assassin if he did try. Plus, the door looked as though it needed a key and Luke most certainly didn't have one of those. He sat down in the rough wooden chair, looking around the cabin curiously. The cabin was mostly bare, just a fire place, a kitchen area and a table. There were two doors and Luke guessed they led to the bedroom area and maybe the bathroom.

"What is your name?" Yassen was right in front of him and Luke jumped, not having realized the man had moved. He bit his lip, deciding whether or not to answer before giving a small sigh of resignation.

"Luke Tanner." Yassen pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and called someone. Luke watched him warily, but Yassen paid him no attention, speaking rapid-fire Russian into the phone.

"Я хочу информацию о Лука Таннер." Luke wasn't sure what he said, but it couldn't be good. He recognized his name out of it and felt the blood draining from his face. This man was going to find out who he was and he was going to find out what had happened and who was after them and then he was going to kill him and everybody else and he hadn't seen his family in over six months…

He could hear blood rushing in his ears and he was certain he was going to pass out. Something was shoved into his hands and he looked down, realizing it was a mug of something. It didn't smell unpleasant, but he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to drink it. Wolf would yell at him for drinking something that was handed to him by a known assassin. He set it numbly on the table, but picked it back up quickly. Holding it kept his hands from shaking. He was dimly aware of Yassen hanging up and sitting down across from him, but Luke focused solely on the mug of what he deduced was tea, staring determinedly into the brown depths and not meeting his eyes.

"You know Alex Rider." Luke's hands clenched around the mug and he nodded. "You have been in his company-"

"Since the beginning of the school year," Luke confirmed, still not meeting his gaze. "They attacked our school the second week." He was tense, Yassen noted. He hadn't taken a drink of the tea, but he was clutching the mug like his life depended on it.

"I did nothing to the tea," he told him. Luke nodded jerkily, but didn't take a drink. Yassen pried it from his grip and took a sip, making sure Luke was watching him before handing it back. "SCORPIA is after you?" Luke nodded again, but this time he took a small sip. Yassen leaned back in his seat, watching him closely.

"Why?" Luke darted a quick look at him and then it was back to his tea.

"They were looking for Alex," Luke began. "They told us all to get on the floor and not to look. Kae, you met, she's a bit louder, can draw really well and she looked. She drew one of the attackers and then they were going to shoot Alex. Five of us stood up. We didn't know what we were going to do, but Alex is a good guy, no matter what the rumors about him say."

"Rumors?" Yassen's voice came out sharper than he intended and Luke flinched, but met Yassen's gaze steadily.

"They say he's part of a gang and he's a druggie. He'll leave school, sometimes for weeks at a time, but then he'll come back bruised and all banged up and he'll say he had the fever or something," Luke explained. Yassen hummed and studied the boy in front of him. Luke looked exhausted and he was watching Yassen with distrustful eyes. Yassen had no doubt that Alex had told them about him as much as Alex was willing to share without going to deeply into his personal life. He had to wonder what that entailed, though.

"What has Alex told you about me?" Luke blinked in surprise, though he supposed he really should've expected the question.

"Um, just that you're an assassin," he answered honestly. Alex probably would've told them more if Wes hadn't mentioned he knew him. Luke wondered if he should mention that he was there as well before deciding against it. The less Yassen knew about the occupants in the cabin, the better. Yassen turned this over in his head. It made sense that that was all Alex would tell them…he was a private boy and Yassen had no doubt that Alex wished to keep as much about his…job private as possible.

He stood abruptly, causing Luke to jump and slosh some of the liquid over the cup. Yassen looked at him carefully. Luke wasn't sure what the scrutiny was for, but he hoped Yassen would cut it out. He was starting to get a bit dizzy and the undivided attention he was getting from the assassin wasn't helping any and was starting to unnerve him. Yassen seemed to tower over him and Luke quickly set the mug down on the table. He'd noticed it was tipping and he didn't want to spill tea everywhere.

"You need to go back," Yassen said shortly. Luke nodded and tried to push himself up, only to fall forward. He thought he was about to greet the floor with his face, but he found himself being pulled up and carried bridal style. Luke tried to protest at the embarrassing position, but his brain wasn't working right and that wasn't supposed to happen, what was happening?

"Wha' 're ya doin'?" He slurred and frowned at his voice. That wasn't right either. Luke started to feel the first niggling of panic as Yassen ignored him and he started trying to squirm away from the older man. Normally, Luke wouldn't have bothered because he knew he wouldn't be able to get away, but this wasn't 'normally.' If this was normally, he would be walking on his own and praying for deliverance from Yassen.

It was sad that Luke's new definition of 'normal' included trying to escape from assassins.

0000

When Yassen took a sip, he didn't actually take a sip, he was pretending.

Sorry for taking so long, I hope you can forgive me!

Read and Review, please!


	20. And The Eruption Starts

Okay, so first off, sorry for taking so freaking long! I hate it when I do that. Secondly, thank you for being so patient and reviewing!

Thirdly and definitely most important, thank you to **Ovolamp** who has been like a miracle worker when it comes helping me write this and coming up with ideas.

I don't own…except, you know, my characters. Anyway, Enjoy!

**KLBDKLBDKLBD**

Yassen handled his load carefully, not wanting to injure the boy, although, really there was no need to have any fear of _that_. Yassen Gregorovitch was not known for dropping precioius cargo, and despite his cold exterior, he considered children very precious. He had no desire to have any himself, espeically given his previous occupation, but they were something to be treasured. They were the innocence in the world…even if there some he could distinctly remember wanting to throttle when he came in contact with them.

Luke mumbled something under his breath and looked around with drug-hazed eyes. Yassen did regret having to drug him, but Luke had been on the verge of a panic attack and Yassen preferred returning him drugged than comatose. He doubted the boy's protectors would see it that way, but that was how Yassen saw it and at any rate, Yassen was going to have to reveal his presence after today any. Feliks had come back with a report about a pick-up in activity in SCORPIA and Yassen wasn't paranoid, but he knew damn well that SCORPIA was gunning for him and they were closing in.

Yassen should've left when he first met those teenaged girls. Something hadn't been right about them and Yassen _knew_ that, but he'd been curious and (__) and had decided to stay because he missed human contact and really what was the harm? Well, SCORPIA had double the reason to be heading towards the area now, though personally Yassen hoped that they wouldn't find the cabin. At the very least, he would pay back the favor of keeping them safe. After all, Jessie and the other girl hadn't told about him.

Yassen shifted Luke slightly, who mumbled, not happy with the change in position, but quieted down after Yassen murmured softly in Russian. Yassen turned his attention back to making his way carefully through the forest, moving quickly, but wanting to be careful.

A cracking noise off to his right had Yassen dropping quickly behind a thick tree, unconciously cradling Luke closer and hunching protectively around him. Luke looked up at him lazily with questioning eyes. Yassen ignored him in favor of listening for the source of the noise. Within a few seconds he heard two male voices, obviously adult, talking quietly. He couldn't understand what they were saying, but a moment later Luke picked up on the voices as well and began moving around in Yassen's grasp, mumbling incoherently. He clearly recognized the voices, but Yassen wasn't willing to move just yet. Just because he recognized them didn't necessarily mean anything.

He leaned Luke against the tree. The boy shivered when he came in contact with the melting snow and whined softly…he was still feeling the effects of the drugs and he would for a while, so whines and small mumbles were how he communicated. Yassen reached for his gun and cocked it quietly. Luke focused on him and his eyes got bigger. He began trying to move, but his limbs were heavy, so he did the next best thing. He tried to to yell.

000

"He missed the goal by a mile, Fox," Eagle argued as the two soldiers trudged through the forest, keeping one eye on their surroundings and one ear listening closely for any thing that may have sounded out of place. The surrounding forest was quiet, and still. Eagle wondered idly why they still did patrol…nothing ever happened out here and it was boring. The snow was melting, at least. That was an upside and a downside. Upside, because winter was coming to a close and it was nearing the middle of March. It was also a downside becaues the ground was covered in either slush, snow or mud; two out of three of which were ideal for covering up tracks.

Plus, they couldn't just kick the kids outside because they would track mud all over the place and while Eagle would be the first admit he wasn't the cleanest person, a muddy floor was never something he liked and he'd feel bad making Jessie clean it up. She already handled most of the cleaning. Eagle didn't actually know it was possible for one person to be so organized, she had taken control like a pro. He would swear that sometimes she could give Wolf a run for his money. If she wasn't so nice, that was.

"No, he didn't," Fox argued stubbornly. "They had a lousy ref who was blind." Eagle sighed and stepped over a log, muttering about spies and how they were _supposed_ to have 20/20 vision, but clearly this one didn't. Fox ignored him and jumped over the log instead, grinning at Eagle's petulant look. He had missed his unit, that was for sure. Why had he become a spy again?

Fox was saved having to retort by a small whimpering noise. He glanced at Eagle to see if the other man had heard it as well. The way Eagle had instantly tensed was answer enough and both men were on automatic guard, reaching for their guns, searching for the source of the noise. Unfortunately, it had been small and neither of them had been listening for it.

Neither of them spoke, both of them listening when a sick realization came over Fox. He turned to Eagle to see if the same thought had occurred to him as well. It hadn't, though, because Eagle still looked as calm and composed as ever. He reached out and grabbed Eagle's sleeve to get his attention. The younger man's attention snapped to him and he could tell right away somemthing was wrong. He cocked a brow at Fox questioningly and Fox leaned in closer so he could speak to Eagle without being heard, he hoped.

"Where is Luke?"

Fox watched the blood drain from Eagle's face as he too remembered that the red-haired boy had gone on a walk earlier and he hadn't returned yet when the two of them had headed out to patrol. Eagle's hands tightened on his gun and both their heads snapped around at another small whimper. Fox's eyes were fixed on a tree that he was certain the noise had originated from. He motioned with his head and Eagle nodded. Together they moved, silently flanking the tree.

When they worked their way around it, what they saw made both their hearts stop cold. Eagle, because it was the whole principle of the matter. Fox, because he knew _exactly_ who the man cradling Luke was.

Yassen Gregorovich was _not_ high on his list of people he wanted to see.

000

Yassen held Luke closely when the two soldiers appeared on either side of him. About eight feet away…far enough away that if he had any desire to give up his human shield, he could probably get away without any problem…but holding onto a drugged-up fourteen year old didn't exactly lend itself to escape.

Besides, these were the boy's caretakers. He was going to them anyway. The one on his left didn't know who he was, Yassen was certain of that, but the one his right…the expression on his face would've been amusing if Yassen had been the one in control of the situation. Shock, disbelief, horror, the slight possibility he was crazy, anger and protectiveness all flitted acrossed his face before settling into a smooth mask. Sloppy. Alex did better than he did.

"Who are you?" The other one, the younger one, demanded harshly, his face hard and his eyes set in a glare. Yassen didn't answer him, just gave him a cool look and shifted Luke closer to his body, eliciting a small whimper from him. Instantly, both guns came up higher. When Yassen was sure he had both of their full attention, he spoke.

"I am going to put my gun back in it's holster," he told them. He glanced at the older one for permission. The man nodded slightly. Yassen moved slowly, making sure they could see him the entire time. The younger male, though, was getting impatient and he asked his question again, his voice coming out in a snarl.

"_Who_ _are_ _you_?" He demanded again. Yassen gave him another look before answering.

"My name is Yassen Gregorovich."

Fox didn't hesitate, bringing his gun up and aiming it unwaveringly at the man's forehead. He could shoot the man now if he wanted. Yassenw didn't harm a child to save his own life and Luke would be thorougly traumatized by having blood and gore raining down on his face, but Yassen Gregorovich, or the man claiming to be him, would be dead and the threat eliminated. Granted, they would be stuck with the dilemma of having to deal with a dead body, but it would be gone.

"Fox?" Eagle sounded uncertain, but Fox didn't spare him a glance. "Yassen Gregorovich is dead."

"I know," Fox answered harshly. "Which is why we're gonig to figure out who this bastard is. Stand up." This was directed at Yassen, who stood carefully, still holding Luke. Luke turned his head dazedly to look at Fox and Fox could see pleading and fear in them and his stomach wanted to crawl up his throat. They were supposed to protect them and now look at where they were.

"Eagle, take his gun and check his boots." Normally, Fox wouldn't send his younger teammate in close to an enemy, he would do that himself, but if something turned to shit and shots had to be fired, Fox had the steadier hand when it came to using the handgun. Eagle shifted his gun over to his other hand and approached Gregorovich cautiously, quickly relieving him of his gun and any weapons he could find. Once Eagle was clear, Fox motioned with his gun for Yassen to start walking.

Eagle knew what Fox was doing, letting this guy carry Luke. If he carried Luke, then he wasn't as big a danger. If he wanted to run, he'd have to drop Luke, thus removing Luke from the present danger. He knew what he was doing, but that didn't mean he liked it.

When the cabin came into view Eagle didn't have to be told to go ahead and get everything ready. Fox wasn't surprised to see Wolf come barreling out on a porch less than a minute later, his face morphed into an ugly snarl as Yassen was led into the cabin.

000

Objectivity, Fox thought wrly, was _not_ James's middle name. Snake was kneeling on the floor next to the couch where Luke was stretched out, sleeping. Wolf was hovering (but if he ever heard that word used to describe him, woe to the person who said it) nearby, his arms crossed over his chest in a menacing manner and he was scowling ferociously at Yassen Gregorovich, who was seated in an armchair across from the couch, being covered by Fox and Eagle.

"What happened to him?" Snake, Fox was relieved to note, sounded completely calm. That was probably for Wolf's benefit, though how he was able to remain calm when a known assassin had carried in the cousin of Snake's charge (because try as they might to encourage the teens to go them equally, they had been adopted and in turn adopted each other and Snake was Jessie's, there was no question about it) completely drugged up was beyond him.

"He is merely sedated," Yassen answered calmly. Far to calmly than the situation warranted, Fox felt. Apparently Snake felt the same way because his eyes narrowed.

"With _what_?" He demanded in a low, dangerous voice. Yassen looked completely unaffected by Snake's currenty disposition towards him, though he was obviously playing it safe.

"Benzodiazepine. There are no long-term effects and it is harmless to him," Yassen answered. Snake glowered.

"I know what that is," he snapped. "Why the _hell_ did you _drug_ him?" Yassen sighed inwardly. He knew this was going to happen and he doubted he would be able to get through his explanation without an interruption, but not answering would be next to suicidal. So he began talking.

000

Alex was listening intently at the door. The silence hanging over the room was thick and Kae and Jessie felt ready to throw up. Less than fifteen minutes ago, Snake had ordered them all back to Alex and Tom's room and to lock the door and not come out until someone came for them. As soon as he had satisfied himself that their room was as secure as it was going to get, he had left. Alex had been at the door as soon as it closed, his ear pressed to the keyhole and listening closely.

It took all of his willpower not to run out at the sound of Yassen's voice because, _dammit_ that man had explaining to do! Like, why he wasn't _dead_? Why he hadn't tried to contact Alex, for another thing? And Alex knew he had a bit of explaining to do as well, because Yassen at least deserved to know what the real story between MI6 and SCORPIA and his father was. Alex still hadn't forgiven him for killing his uncle, though. He thought he understood a bit better now, though. A job was a job and Alex didn't exactly have clean hands, either. The difference between him and Yassen, however, was that Alex didn't deliberately go out to kill people. His job was to save them.

Still…Yassen should've tried to get in touch with him, Alex thought, only sulking a little. After all, it's not like _Alex_ knew he was alive.

"…did you survive?" Alex pressed closer to the door, desperate to hear the answer to the question that had been nagging at him since Kae and Jessie had come back with news he was alive.

"I can't-" And Alex didn't wait to hear anymore.

"That's _bullshit_!" He yelled, throwing the door open.

**KLBDKLBDKLBDKLBD**

Aaaaaaand that's it for this chapter. Sorry, no confrontation this one, but it certainly promises to be good the next one!

So, you know, if you want the next chapter…review and all that. Because it was my birthday yesterday and a review would make an AWESOME birthday present!


	21. Still Human

There was a chain reaction. All the men in the living room swung around to face the hall that Alex was charging down, looking fit to murder. Behind him you could hear startled shouts and cries of "Alex, no!" Before Alex skidded to a halt in front of Yassen, who had risen, in the middle of the room, shouting in his face and not particularly caring that Yassen could kill him at that moment. A minute later, the others tumbled through the entryway, freezing at the scene.

"That is complete and utter bullshit – "

"Alex – " Yassen tried unsuccessfully to get Alex's attention, but the teen kept yelling over him, his hands curling into fists.

"Do you _know_ how long it's been since you died? " Yes, Yassen knew exactly how long it'd been since he'd "died", but he also knew how much danger Alex would've been put in if he'd contacted him, no matter how badly he wanted to. Not only from SCORPIA, but from MI6 as well. Alex clearly hadn't thought this through yet, though. Typical.

"Alex – "

"Do you know what's _happened?_ What went on since _you sent me there?_"

This caught everyone's attention. Something in Alex's tone caused Yassen to focus more on him and saw that the blonde boy was near tears. There was definite accusation in his tone and something like regret. Yassen understood that one. He regretted sending Alex to SCORPIA. He'd heard some of the story of what had happened, but only the beginning. It had sounded like Alex had flourished there before something went sour. Beyond that, Yassen had not been able to obtain any details.

The four SAS men were sending Yassen hostile (that certainly wasn't new) and suspicious (and neither was that) looks. Yassen had sent Alex _where_, exactly? And what had happened?

"So don't be saying anything about how you _can't_ say anything – "

"Alex!" Yassen's voice was now sharp enough to cut through Alex's tirade. There was no need to raise his voice. Alex knew him well enough that he knew better than to cross that tone. The fourteen-year-old settled for staring at him blankly, waiting for him to continue.

"Alex," Yassen's voice was quiet as he said his name again. "What happened?" Alex glared at him, crossing his arms before turning away petulantly. Yassen made a move to grab him, but a threatening twitch of every gun in the room stopped him. Alex was biting his nails now, something he only did when he was nervous or thinking. There wasn't much left to chew and Yassen took the liberty of batting his hand away from his mouth. Alex glared at him again, but simply lowered his arms.

Fox watched the interaction between the two with narrowed eyes. There obviously a history here and Fox wasn't sure he liked that. Yassen was a world-renown assassin…there was no way in hell a fourteen-year-old should know him, spy or not.

"I don't want to tell you here," Alex muttered, glaring down at the floor and crossing his arms. Translation: I don't want to tell you in front of everyone. It was everyone else's turn to narrow their eyes.

"You're not going anywhere with him, Cub." Fox spoke levelly. Alex snapped a glare at him, but Fox wasn't the older and had gone through the SAS _and_ survived life as an MI6 spy for nothing. Ha. A fourteen-year-old's glare had nothing on his. Fox stared back at him steadily until Alex finally dropped his eyes, scowling.

"What are we going to do with him?" Snake asked, breaking the silence, and acting as if nothing strange had occurred between Yassen and Alex. That was something that needed to be dealt with, no doubt about that, but right now they had a more pressing concern. Jessie had moved behind the soldiers, taking care to keep them in between her and Yassen and knelt beside her cousin. He was out like a light and there wasn't anything she could do, but it made her feel better being closer to him. James had come up behind Kae and placed an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him protectively. Wes had stayed out of sight the entire time, with Tom standing slightly in front of him, sensing the younger boy's discomfort. Never one to miss much, Snake narrowed his eyes at that as well before turning back to Wolf.

"We can't keep him here," Wolf said, not even glancing at the medic. "He's too dangerous." Alex sighed, looking down and then back around at everyone.

"Just let him go," he spoke up quietly. "He's not interested in us, he's not interested in you, he just wants to be left alone." Yassen decided not to correct the boy because in all actuality, he was _very_ curious as to why this group was out in the middle of nowhere…however, pretending disinterest seemed to be the only way he was going to be allowed to leave unharmed.

"Cub-" Fox started, but Alex interrupted.

"Fox, please. I know him. Just let him leave."

"We can't trust him," Wolf said stubbornly. Fox finally looked over at his unit leader and motioned to the kitchen. Wolf followed him reluctantly.

"We can't exactly keep him, Wolf," Fox hissed. "Alex is right. We need to let him go. At least now we know he's here and keep an eye on him until the next drop-off. Then we can let MI6 know and they can handle it from there. We just won't let the kids out." Wolf frowned, thinking this over. He wasn't overly thrilled with the idea, but they didn't have a lot of other options, either.

Finally, he nodded and turned to Yassen, hoping he was making the right decision.

000

Tulip Jones by nature was not an emotional woman. It was part of the reason she was so good at her job. But right now, standing in front of the head of MI6, she felt like throwing the desk phone into his blank, grey face and knocking him unconscious, if only so she could take over for a few hours and set something straight or get something _done_ that would go towards the protection of the seven teens stranded out in the woods and cut off from their families and lives. Not to mention the soldiers.

"Alan, we have conclusive evidence that SCORPIA is aware of their location and are preparing to send a team in." She kept her voice clipped, cool and decisive. Losing control of your emotions in front of Alan Blunt was the quickest way to lose an argument and not get what you wanted. Alan was emotionless, analytical and scarily objective…sometimes too much. Tulip wondered if that's what she would become when he stepped down and she stepped up to take his place.

The use of his first name, though, let him know how serious she was about this. He regarded her coolly, taking a sip of his tea from his (grey) mug. She wondered idly if he took anything with his tea. Probably not.

"Mrs. Jones-" the use of her formal name let her know how serious _he_ was about this. "- our evidence says they will not be ready to mobilize for another three weeks. We have a drop-off in one. We do not have the manpower to spare right now to go checking on them every time someone somewhere causes a bump. For heaven's sake, we're still trying to find their original agent and that's taking up more time and men than it should!" The slight volume increase showed how distinctly ruffled Alan was. It wasn't much, but it assured Tulip that he was still human and she wasn't taking orders from a robot.

Alan slid a stack of folders across the desk to her. "These are alternative safe houses. Pick on by Wednesday and we'll move them Sunday. They will be fine until then."

Tulip was not entirely reassured, but she nodded anyway, accepting the compromise and picking up the folders. Just the fact that Alan had these prepared before her arrival reassured her even more he was taking action and that some small part of him had a heart.

**KLBDKLBDKLBD**

Okay, now I feel like the worst author ever because it's been so long since I updated! It's been over a month and I didn't want to take that long! My only excuse is that school was ending and it got crazy busy! But it's over now so updates should be more frequent. If they're not, feel free to bash me over the head. For reals, please do because I need people to keep me focused.

Thank you so much for your patience and I'm sorry it's so short! But I would appreciate it greatly if you left reviews!


	22. A Quiet Prayer

"You five," Wolf pointed at the group gathered in the door way and Jessie, still sitting on the couch beside Luke. "Out. Now." Jessie bit her lip, but one look at all of their thunderous faces was enough to stave off any protests she may have had about leaving her still unconscious/sleeping cousin…she couldn't tell the difference…and stood quickly, heading for the relative safety of the group. She shot a quick look at Alex, but his face was impassive and she couldn't glean anything from him.

Tom was staring at Alex, hard, but his friend wasn't looking at him, either. James nudged him gently down the hall, corralling the group to Tom and Alex's room, which had apparently become their unofficial headquarters for lack of a better word. Wolf watched them go before turning to Alex, who was staring at the ground and playing with a hangnail on an already chewed down nail.

"Sit." Alex debated not listening, but he was already going to have a hard time not answering the inevitable questions and decided to give this one to them. Because there no way he was giving them anything easily.

He sat.

"How the hell do you know him?" Wolf hissed. Alex looked at each of them carefully. Wolf was standing forefront, his arms crossed, glowering down at the teen. Snake had returned to Luke, but Alex wasn't fooled. He knew he was listening carefully. He'd probably be able to give them a play-by-play later on what Alex was feeling just by his tone of voice when he spoke to them. There was a name for that, but he couldn't remember what it was and he didn't think it was something SAS soldiers typically learned, but he could be wrong. Fox was leaning calmly against the doorframe, looking as though an assassin that everyone had previously thought dead hadn't just occupied their living room and Eagle looked as though he wanted to pace, but a look from Fox was enough to stay him.

"Mrs. Jones warned me about him," Alex said shortly. "I ran into him once." Wolf's eyes narrowed. Alex was being ambiguous on purpose and he was not pleased. Fox was staring him down behind Wolf and Alex found himself shifting under Fox's gaze. He wondered if the other spy had ever encountered Yassen on a mission before or if Alex was just unlucky enough to have encountered Yassen twice in his career. Three times if you counted this.

"Was it at that…school?" Wolf spat the word as if it had personally offended him and Alex looked down, needing to bite his lip. He took a moment before looking back at Wolf, his expression completely schooled.

"No." Wolf snarled. Eagle frowned, cutting in this time. Snake and Wolf were frowning as well. A twitch of Fox's lips was all he allowed to convey his confusion.

"Then when? That was your only mission, wasn't it?" He demanded. Alex stared at him, keeping his face blank.

"No." Wolf stood, taking to pacing now, everyone watching him. Alex took advantage of the distraction to check on Luke from his seat. His face was pale, but his breathing was regular, which was a relief. Actually…Alex's eyes narrowed a bit at his friend before returning to his original state of impassivity. Clever boy.

"How many missions have you been on?" Alex recoiled from the amount of anger in Wolf's tone before he even fully realized what he was doing. MI6's best spy be damned, he was still a fifteen-year-old boy and Wolf was a full-grown, angry SAS soldier. No one in their right mind would want to be on his bad side. It didn't stop his next answer, though.

"Enough." Wolf looked ready to throttle him and had just opened his mouth to say something else when he was stopped.

"Was he in Australia?" Fox spoke before Wolf could say anything and every head in the room snapped towards the agent. Alex couldn't help but gape at Fox. As far as he could tell, Fox was as secretive with his own life as Alex was with his. Judging by the looks on their faces they were as surprised as Alex was. Wolf was turning a lovely shade of puce and he gestured in between Fox and Alex.

"You…he…" He snarled. "You two worked a mission together?" Fox nodded and Alex glared at the floor.

"_I_ wasn't going to say anything," he muttered to Fox petulantly. Fox simply glared at him.

"I know you weren't," he told the teen. "That's why I did." He turned to the rest of K-unit. "Alex and I worked a mission together in Australia. We met in Bangkok by accident and he followed me –" Here everyone looked at Alex, who simply glared. "- and we met up with Mrs. Jones, who explained we were working the same mission, but Alex here had gotten recruited by the Australian government." The tone in his voice conveyed he didn't know how _that one_ had worked out, but he'd very much like to know. Seeing as Alex wasn't about to elaborate, Fox continued.

"Before that, though, I saved Alex from an illegal boxing ring in Bangkok Chinatown." Alex began protesting before he could even think when he saw their glares.

"That was not my fault! My godfather –" He froze, crossed his arms and slunk further down in his seat. Everyone was staring at him now. Behind the soldiers, Luke had opened his eyes and was giving Alex a look of deepest sympathy.

"Your godfather?" Fox hissed, now as intimidating at Wolf, if not a little more. "Your godfather knows about this? Why the hell hasn't he done something?" Alex glared.

"Because he's not suitable guardian material," he snapped. Luke (to Alex's ever undying gratitude) decided now would be a good time to 'wake up'. He let out a small groan and shifted slightly. Almost instantly, everyone's attention snapped to him. Snake was next to him in an instant and Wolf was hovering over the couch. Alex twitched slightly to see if anyone would notice and when no one turned to him, he stood silently, because he _did not_ want to stay there any longer and have his life picked apart (_'__)_.

"You stay right where you are, Cub." Fox didn't even turn around. Alex scowled, but stayed where he was. Wolf turned to glare back at him, but something in Alex's face made him stop and shake his head.

"Cub, Pup, go on back to your rooms," Wolf said, suddenly sounding tired. Luke and Alex glanced at each other, a little bemused by the sudden change in attitude and the nickname but didn't question them (for once), simply stood and left the room.

"What do we do about this?" Eagle asked after a moment of silence. Wolf just looked at him, then at Fox and Fox started because he realized that Wolf _didn't know what to do_ and was looking to him for guidance. Fox would be lying if he said he wasn't feeling a little out of his depth because they didn't cover people coming back to life in training. Because let's face it…you don't really get better from being dead. It's a bit of a permanent condition. But Fox started talking because that was what his team needed right now.

"We're going to have to keep the kids in the cabin. We'll talk to MI6, but we're going to have to wait until the end of the week for the next drop off. We'll talk to Alex and the girls tomorrow because there was no way they were running around the woods and they didn't know about him," Fox rattled off quickly. "And if Alex wants us to keep quiet about him he'd better be ready to explain why."

There were quiet nods from everyone in the room.

000

Yassen hadn't realized how fond of the cabin he'd become until he was back in it, placing a call to Feliks and ordering him to starting searching for a new safe house and to arrange for transportation. He didn't have to tell him to start searching, because Feliks always had at least three lined up, but the boy would take the underlying message in stride. Be ready to pick Yassen up in two days time because he wanted a little bit more time to gather his thoughts.

With someone on the outside, Yassen could afford that luxury.

Seeing Alex again had been a shock. And everything was clearly not all right with the boy. He hadn't seen Alex lose control like that…or at any rate, he'd never so openly shouted in the assassin's face. There had tended to be a wariness there, a respect. Alex may have challenged him or pushed him, but the teenaged spy was more than aware of what Yassen was capable of and had always kept that in mind when dealing with him.

It didn't take him long to pack, but he wished it did. Now there was nothing left to distract him and he had another two days left to think. When Yassen was younger and he had time to think about something, he tended to want to investigate. For his line of work, that was perfectly acceptable but he had a long time learning which situations were okay to look into and which ones weren't.

This was definitely one that wasn't okay.

Alex was never meant to find out he was alive. Yassen was never meant to go back into that world as fully as he was apparently about to. He wasn't naïve enough to believe he could ever leave it fully, but he wasn't about to dive headlong into it. That was going to kill him.

There was another reason that Yassen was staying. He would admit that. He had seen Wesley and that had been another shock. He had thought that perhaps MI6 would keep him secluded, away from another large target group. After all, the son of a SCORPIA director who had turned traitor…that wasn't something MI6 should take lightly. Even if the boy didn't know anything.

At least now he knew the boy was safe. He would have Feliks contact Susannah and let her know. She didn't know Feliks, but Feliks knew their safe word, so she would know who the message was coming from. Yassen scowled and sat down in one of the chairs by the stove.

His life didn't used to be this complicated.

000

Alex pulled Luke into the bathroom and shut the door. The action was so unexpected that Luke didn't even have time to make a noise of surprise before Alex was looking at him with an almost frantic look on his face in the glow of the nightlight that's always kept on so someone doesn't stab themselves with tweezers on accident or something while searching for the light switch in the middle of the night and Luke knows that whatever Alex is about ask of him, he'll agree to it because Alex just looks that desperate. He did reach over, though, and flip on the main light. Standing in a dark single room loo with someone was just a little bit awkward no matter what the situation was.

"Luke," Alex said, speaking quickly and quietly. "What I said out there –" Luke just looked at him and shook his head.

"Don't tell anyone," he finished, smiling a bit sadly. "Don't worry, mate. I was unconscious, remember?" Alex shot him a grateful smile. Luke leaned against the counter, not really sure if the conversation was done or not and waited for Alex to make the choice. After all, it was his life he'd almost been forced to put on display out there. If Alex wanted to talk about it, he certainly wasn't going to stop him, but if he didn't, then Luke wasn't going to push. Alex looked a little hesitant, though, so Luke prodded just a bit.

"Did you want to talk about it?" Because if serious discussions on top of a washer and dryer were acceptable, then so was a serious discussion in the toilet. Luke figured any sense of normalcy was tossed out the window anyway.

Alex bit his lip, shifting from one foot to the other. If he did tell, Luke wouldn't say a word till his dying day, but at the same time he'd never even told Jack all of what went on. And Luke would listen (any of them would), but Luke had Jessie to take care of and he didn't need Alex's burdens, too. Nobody knew what had fully happened to Alex (_howmuchhe''twherehecouldgotobesafefrom_them___)_. He lied to MI6 on some of the reports…if they knew, they didn't say anything. But nobody knew _all_ of it. It was better that way, simpler, safer.

So he shook his head.

"No," Alex answered. "But thanks."

000

The driver decided he didn't get paid enough for this. He sat in the idling jeep, waiting for MI6 or the SAS or whoever it was who dealt with these situations to show up.

The door was kicked in. The driver had noticed tracks in the mud on the way to the cabin, but hadn't paid them much mind. But when he pulled up to the cabin and the door was hanging awkwardly off its hinges and the railing was smashed and he was sure he could see bullet holes in the side of the building, he figured perhaps he should call back to headquarters and let them know.

He'd been sitting there for the better part of two hours…it was a three hour drive…and he glanced at the bag of groceries sitting next to him. It was such an innocuous thing, so perfectly normal it was ridiculous in the face of what was clearly not a normal situation.

The driver was new, which was why he'd gotten stuck with the delivery boy job. It was simple: pick up groceries, drive to the cabin, drop them off, ask if there were any problems and then leave. Simple. Nothing would/could/should go wrong. Nowhere in the training manual (not that there was one, but it was the principle of the thing) did it say what to when your assignment was apparently missing in what appeared to be a rather violent way.

The crunch of gravel behind him surprised the driver and he straightened, reaching into the glove compartment for his gun (because he was trained not to be stupid, thank you very much) and got out of the car carefully, gun at the ready and eyeing the new vehicle suspiciously. He relaxed marginally when he saw it was the heads of MI6 (shit, these people must've been important for the heads to come out) and behind them was another van and a whole crew of people got out, brushing past him barely sparing him a glance.

Alan Blunt walked up to him swiftly and stopped and the driver had to stop himself from gaping at how…_inconspicuous_ the man was. Though, now that he actually thought it about it, it made sense that the bloody head of MI6 wouldn't be flashy.

"Have you gone in?" He asked and the driver shook his head quickly. The man hummed and then headed swiftly for the cabin, Mrs. Jones following behind closely and the driver decided it was probably okay to follow and see what had actually happened.

The driver started questioning the wisdom of his decision when they got up close to the porch and he could tell that there were actually bullet holes in the side of the cabin. He swallowed a bit, but he had come up here and if was going to see it through.

Inside, it was like getting punched in the gut. There had been a framed poem when one first walked in in an effort to make it more homey that was shattered on the floor. A glance to the left revealed a hallway where the driver assumed the bedrooms were. His assumption was based off the fact that there were clothes and personal items strewn out into the hallway. A glance to the left revealed a completely smashed up living room.

"Don't touch anything," Mrs. Jones told him before heading to the living room. The driver followed her with his eyes for a moment before he headed the opposite way.

The first room he comes to is a bedroom. It was obviously a girl's room and he didn't mean just the gender. Most of the clothing was bright and cheerful and so, so young-looking. He was painfully reminded of his own daughter, who had just turned eleven. Maybe the girls that had stayed here weren't quite that young, but they were definitely young enough he was wondering what happened to put them in a situation for them to have to be hidden all the way out here. He stepped further into the room and began examining it.

Paper rustled under his feet and he looked down. Some of it was pages ripped from books, others had come down off the wall. He could see that from where some of the drawings were still attached to the wall. Crouching down, he could see that one piece of paper came from a diary. The girl had neat, flowing script and she dotted her I's with hearts. His throat clenched painfully. When he checked his daughter's English assignments, he'd noticed she did the same thing. He backed out of the room quickly, trying not to notice that whoever had come through here hadn't just raided the place. They'd _destroyed_ it.

The driver quickly came to the conclusion that this hall belong to teens, or had, going by the personal belongings and the clothing. The rest of the teens had been boys and he thinks of his son, seven-years-old. He headed quickly for the living room, because he had no desire to see what their caretakers rooms looked like.

Mrs. Jones cast him a sympathetic look and he realized he must've appeared pale. He clenched his fist to stop the shaking and looked around the living room, immediately wishing he hadn't. When his first initial glance had revealed the room to be completely destroyed, he hadn't noticed the blood on the floor. It was dried, an awful brown stain on a sandy-colored carpet and for the first time the driver realized how _cold_ it was.

Whenever this had happened, it had happened at least a day ago.

Now, because this is like watching a train crash, you just can't look away, he followed them through the kitchen, carefully averting his eyes, trying not to notice the broken out window or the bloody handprint on the wall. Peering out the window, he could see tracks leading away from the cabin, into the woods. And somehow, _somehow,_ he found himself following the other agents through the woods, a good few miles, before they reached a small hunter's cabin that's equally destroyed and the driver realized for the first time that there are tracks leading back and that there is clearly an imprint of a body being dragged through the slush.

He turned and stalked back towards the main cabin, determined to get back to his jeep and get rid of those damned groceries and drive home and make sure his children and wife are _safe_ even though rationally he knew there was no reason for them not to be.

But he's stopped. He needs to be debriefed, he needs some more hands-on experience, so even though there are professionals all over the place, he's forced to walk through the cabin, see the devastation everywhere and pretend not to be affected, because it's not his job to be personal, but he can't help the feeling that everyone could see right through him. They asked him what he thought happened, to describe the events that could've taken place and he could take no pleasure in the approving nods he gets from the more seasoned agents.

Later, when he's home and he's embraced his son and his daughter and his wife tightly and he's double checked the security system and the deadbolts and the locks and makes sure the dog's inside, after he's tucked his children in and double checked to make sure their windows were latched and the curtains tightly drawn and he's holding his wife in bed, who can tell something amiss happened today and simply rubs his back soothingly, he sent up a quiet prayer to bring those children home.

Because he would die if something happened to his own.

0000

Thank you so much for your patience! I really appreciate it and I hope that you enjoy this chapter!

Please review!


	23. The Beginning of the End

Kae let out a small groan, her head pounding like that time she had kept sneaking shots of tequila at the New Year's Eve party at Clay's house the year before she'd moved to England and had woken up wanting to die and puke at the same time and only being able to do one. Spencer had not been happy when she'd gotten home that afternoon. Clay's parents had already chewed Clay, Noel and her out for it, but Spencer, and by proxy the team, had plenty more to say about it.

Except this was different, because in America, she'd woken up in a sleeping back on a carpeted floor. This was a far different experience. For one, she was cold. She was also not in a sleeping bag, nor on a carpeted floor and she was certain her foot was in a puddle, but it could also be asleep. She wasn't sure yet and she wasn't all that inclined to move and find out just yet.

She thought she must've done something similarly stupid to end up in this state and decided right then that she hated England, no matter how its wilderness and military had grown on her over the past several months. Because England, as a general rule right now, sucked. She didn't know weather could be quite so miserable all the time that even though she couldn't quite remember how she got there, she would end up on the sidewalk with her foot in a puddle.

Then she twitched slightly, her fingertips scraping over the surface beneath her and she realized this wasn't cement she was lying on, but smooth, more like concrete and she wondered how that had happened before she remember she hadn't touched alcohol since that fateful day where she had been grounded for at least three months and that she hadn't seen a city in at least six months and –

"_Run! Out the kitchen window! Luke, take them to his cabin!"_

_Snake and Eagle were helping them out the window –_

_Eagle's hands were bloody where he'd punched the window out without protection – _

_Gunfire – _

_Panicked breathing, branches whipping across their faces – _

_James tripped , Kae skidded to a halt to help him–_

_Jessie screamed –_

_Yassen came running towards them, running past the others and bounding over her and James, yelling at them to –_

"_RUN!"_

Kae suddenly sat up with a gasp, breathing heavily as if she had just stopped running in that mad dash for safety and then she let out a whimper because her head felt like it had just been cleaved in half and she doubled over and curled in on herself, lying on her side and doing her utmost best not to puke. Firefights were not the newest thing in the book to her, but this was only the second time she'd ever been taken hostage and while the first time hadn't looked that great, this situation looked even worse.

Once her head had stopped pounding and settled down to a dull throb, she cautiously sat up again, more slowly and looked around. The walls and floor were made of smooth concrete, the floor was chill and her feet were bare, which explained why her foot had felt like it was in a puddle of ice water. She winced as she braced her hand on the floor and shifted into a more comfortable position. She didn't trust herself not to fall over if she stood up.

There weren't any windows, but the fourth wall was made up entirely of glass except for the metal hinges where the door was. There wasn't a handle on the inside and Kae was comparing the cell to something from an X-Men movie where they were in a fishbowl room. She half-expected a man in a white lab coat to walk in front of her cell at any minute. Her stomach knotted unpleasantly and she forced more bile back down.

Her eyes drifted out past the cell and with a jolt she realized there was a cell opposite hers and she let out another gasp before she could stop herself. Eagle was lying on the floor, still clearly unconscious. She flipped onto her hands and knees and crawled toward the glass. The glass was almost as cold the concrete beneath her when she put her hand on it.

"Eagle," she called, her eyes tracking over him worriedly. She couldn't tell from here how injured he was, only that his hand had been bandaged neatly. That was a good thing, right? If his hand was bandaged, then clearly their captors wanted them alive. He didn't respond, so she called louder. "Eagle! Wake up! Eagle!" She hit the glass once in frustration and stared at him, willing him to consciousness. It seemed to work, but not right away. She had probably sat there about five minutes before the fingers on his good hand twitched and his head rolled slightly.

She could tell by his wince that his head hurt just as much as hers had when she had woken up, but that didn't stop her from sagging with relief and leaning against the glass, still keeping her hand pressed firmly against the pane. A moment later, he sat up slowly and looked around. It didn't take him long to find her and then he was next to the glass too, telling her something and Kae wondered if there was something wrong with her ears because she couldn't hear him. She even shook her head and smacked her ears a bit. Then she realized she couldn't hear him and he couldn't hear her.

He seemed to have come to same conclusion and looked incredibly frustrated, but she offered him a small smile. She noticed he was barefoot as well and wondered if that was supposed to help act as an escape prevention thing. People did tend to move slower with no shoes, she supposed.

Assured that she was no longer completely alone, because unconscious people didn't count, Kae began craning her neck to see into the other cells that she could see were lining the walls. To Eagle's left was Fox. To his right was Snake. It looked like they had their own cells as well and Kae wondered who was on either side of her. Fox was already awake, leaning against the far wall of his cell, allowing her to see him well enough. His brow was furrowed in a frown and he kept casting quick, worried looks at the cell across from him. Whoever was there must not be awake yet. Snake had yet to stir and Kae hoped he wasn't injured.

She couldn't see beyond those two cells from her current vantage point, so she took a risk and climbed shakily to her feet, using the wall to support her passage up. Her movement attracted Fox's attention and she could tell he was checking her over for injuries quickly before returning his attention to the cell. The pain in her head spiked and she took a moment to steady herself and will it back down to a dull throb. Moving to the far left, she could see another cell, but it looked empty. Her stomach knotted unpleasantly until she managed to calm herself down to realize that she had woken up near the back of the cell and had had to come to the front where she could be seen. She guessed that whoever was there hadn't woken up yet.

There was a steel door at the end of the hall and she noticed for the first time that the area outside their cells was completely sterile white, with bright florescent lights that now that she had noticed them, made it almost impossible to look out of the cell without squinting. She wondered how she had missed that before. It reminded her of a hospital.

_Or a lab…_a traitorous voice in the back of her head whispered and Kae shivered.

000

Ben didn't know how long he'd been awake but he was certain he was one of the first ones, if not the first, awake. There was total silence except for when he moved. He had examined the cell carefully, moving only his head so he wouldn't aggravate his head and any injuries he might have. It was made completely out of smooth concrete except for one wall where it was glass. It reminded him of those fishbowl study rooms on a campus he'd toured when he'd still been considering going to uni. Except less comfortably furnished. Much less.

It hadn't taken him long to figure out that his injuries consisted of ribs that were bruised at the very least and his wrist was sprained. He remembered getting shot in the neck. A drug, which explained his pounding headache.

Glancing across the corridor at the cell directly parallel to his, he checked on Alex. The teen was still sprawled across the floor, unconscious or doing a very good job at pretending to be. Ben was betting on the former. Alex hadn't so much as twitched since Ben had woken up.

When he had woken up, Ben didn't think that lying on his stomach had ever been more comfortable in his life. He hurt all over that was for certain and the floor under his cheek was warmed from his body heat, but moving required effort and energy his body didn't possess. He'd started to shift, only to have a sharp pain shoot through his ribs and make him freeze, knocking his breath from him and settled back down and wait for the pain to pass. Once it did and he could breathe normally again he moved his arms slowly, trying to move them into a position so he could push himself up.

Cold metal stopped him and Ben was certain he had stopped breathing again for about half a second before he pulled in a deep breath and let it out slowly. He was handcuffed, but that was no reason to panic. He'd been in situations like this before. He took a few more calming breaths before taking a fortifying one and forcing himself into a kneeling position. He took another few moments to compose himself again, breathing through the pain and taking a little bit of time. If no one had appeared yet because he'd woken up, he could probably assume he had a bit of time to get his bearings.

He finally managed to get himself into a kneeling position that wasn't exactly comfortable, but allowed him to look around without sharping, shooting pains throughout his body. He took a deep breath to compose himself and then looked around.

The cell was completely bare. The walls were plain and whitewashed. He noticed a small drain in the center of the room, the only splash of color. If he had to take a guess, he'd say they were underground.

Ben had almost had a heart attack when he looked towards the front of the cell and seen Alex collapsed on the floor across the corridor from him. Forgetting his injures, Ben had scrambled to the glass wall and got as close to his charge as he could get. Ben could see Alex's chest rising and falling; his breathing appeared even. He didn't seem to be injured, but unless Ben could get closer, he wouldn't know for sure.

Moving didn't seem to be an option at this point in time, but Ben forced himself over to the wall to lean against it and got as close to the glass as possible, preparing for a long wait.

000

Alan Blunt did not have time. He did not have patience. And he most certainly did not have answers. It had been nearly ten hours since the discovery of the state of the safe house, they had almost all available agents going to the families to double up on security detail and working on trying to find out what had happened. Nearly ten hours of searching and absolutely nothing to show for it except a headache and a short temper.

He was seething. Someone had somehow gotten close enough to find out where the safe house was at and he was more than certain he knew who, they had yet to be able to locate one Matthew Kelly, who had not been seen in almost forty-eight hours. A search had revealed that he wasn't at his apartment nor at any haunts that coworkers had said he favored.

Frowning, Blunt threw the folder down on the desk. Matthew Kelly was their prime suspect, though there were a few other personnel folders on his desk as well. All them had had red flags around them, such as no one had seen them for more than twenty-fours hours and nearly all of them had recently bought plane tickets out of country, paid for with cash. But there was also nothing conclusive and nothing to back up his suspicions. Except for the fact no one could find them.

He stood abruptly and turned to look out his window. The street below was busy, despite the steady, cold drizzle. He watched a young mother emerge from the shop across the street, scooping up her small child and settling him on her hip before opening the dark green umbrella swinging from her wrist and merging into the foot traffic before disappearing in the crowd. He lost track of her after a few minutes and instead went back to his desk. It was ridiculously easy to disappear, even in this day and age when privacy was merely a word. Anyone who wanted to know anything simply had to turn on their computer.

And yet, his people, some of the best in the world, had nothing to give him.

His phone rang, shrill in the silence and he picked up before the first ring had finished.

"Mr. Blunt, there's a call for you on line one." His secretary's voice was clipped, tense and professional. Normally, Maria was a bright, cheerful young lady who wasn't afraid to give him a little bit of cheek, but in instances like this, she was completely serious, not wasting time with witticisms and telling him only what he needed to hear. She wouldn't be bothering him with a phone call unless it was important.

"Who is it?" He asked. She was quiet for a moment.

"He won't say, sir," she answered, finally. "Just that he knows something."

"Patch him through a secure line and have a trace started, Ms. Palmer," he instructed. There was no reply, but a moment later, he heard the beep as she patched it through.

„Ponas Blunt?" The voice on the other end was male and young and he sounded sure of himself, though Blutn could detect a little bit of apprehensiveness underneath the confidence. Blunt didn't know much Lithuanian, but it didn't take a genius to pick out his name.

"I prefer English," he said instead. There was a huff of laughter from the other end.

„Ir aš norėčiau Lietuva, p. Blunt." Blunt frowned, but decided to let the boy have this victory. It woudn't matter if he turned out to be credible.

„Would you consent to Russian, then?" There was a pause as the other considered this and Blunt felt himself growing impatient. Finally, though, he agreed.

"Taip."

"Спасибо. Кто я говорю?"

"Мое имя не важно, г-н Блант. Но вы потеряли кого-то. Так что I."

"Как вы знаете, что?" Maria appeared in the doorway and gave him a nod. The phone call was being recorded and they were working on getting a trace. He inclined his head once and she disappeared.

"Опять же, это не важно. Дело в том, я считаю, что люди, которых мы потеряли вместе. В руках Scorpia". Blunt's fingers twitched.

"Был не ваше происхождение группы, которая была потеряна».

"Был не так. Но это не главное. Я хотел бы заключить сделку». The voice amiable, agreeing and friendly. Blunt didn't trust him for a minute.

"Что это за дело?"

"Я хочу предложить вам свои услуги. В обмен на помощь вам найти потерянных группы и Алекс Райдер и ваши солдаты, вы будете летать молодая женщина из Литвы в Англию. Вы дать ей новую жизнь и у вас не будет беспокоить ее в все. Вы также даст любой человек моего выбора помилование за прошлые преступления. Вы не будете беспокоиться этого человека, либо ".

"Нет"

"Г-н Блант, у вас нет выбора. У вас есть шесть высокий приоритет народу в руках Scorpia, каждый из которых знает тайну, что будет иметь неоценимое значение для организации. Я предлагаю свои услуги, чтобы вы их обратно, потому что я ваш лучший шанс на получение их безопасно, и все живы ".

"А откуда я знаю, вы сможете это сделать?" There was another huff of laughter. Blunt sincerely hoped that they were able to get a trace on this person. Whoever they were, he wanted them, now.

"Я призываю вас в пять часов с расположением Мэтью Келли". There was another pause. "А вы людей не смогли получить след, так что это пустая трата времени и ваше". Blunt swore and the man on the other end laughed, hanging up. Maria appeared in the doorway again. He looked at her, demanding the answer he wanted, but she simply shook her head, regretful.

**KLBDKLBDKBLD**

Wow. This chapter is done. I am so sorry for taking so long. Two weeks of the time it took in between updates was because my computer was literally in piece because the casing was broken and that had to get replaced. Everything else was writer's block, plain and simple. And no motivation.

Anyway, thank you for being so patient! I truly am sorry it took so long. But it's a bit longer to make up for it, so hopefully that helps!

If you have anything you would like to see in this story, let me know and I'll try to work it in! Also, I used google translate for the entire above conversation, so if you can actually read those and realize it's kind of spotty, that's why. Translation here:

| That was supposed to be an arrow.

| If that doesn't show up on the actual webpage, there was supposed to be an arrow there.

\ /

**The conversation: **

"Mr. Blunt?"

"I prefer English."

"I prefer Lithuanian, Mr. Blunt."

"Would you consent to Russian?"

"Yes."

"Thank you. Who am I talking to?"

"My name is not important, Mr. Blunt. But you have lost someone. So have I."

"How do you know that?"

"Again, this is not important. But I believe the people we lost are together. In the hands of Scorpia."

"There was none of you origin in the group that was lost."

"There wasn't. But that's not the point. I would like to make a deal."

"What kind of deal?"

"I want to offer my services. In exchange for helping you to find the lost group, and Alex Rider, and your soldiers, you will fly a young woman from Lithuania to England. You give her new life and you will not bother her at all. You will pardon anyone of my choosing for past crimes. You will not bother this person, either. "

"No."

"Mr. Blunt, you have no choice. You have six high priority people in the hands of Scorpia, each of whom knows secrets that would be invaluable to the organization. I offer my services to you because I am your best chance of getting them back safely and alive. "

"And how do I know you can do this?"

"I will call you in five hours with the location of Matthew Kelly. And your people were not able to get a trace, so that was a waste of their time and yours."

Review, please?


	24. Men and Monsters

Blunt didn't actually expect the mystery caller to deliver, though he would admit that wasn't entirely outside the realm of possibility. After all, the young man had been able to get through MI6's phone security; no easy feat in of itself. However, it had sounded like he was working alone and there was only so much one man could do. Even solo agents had some way to get back in contact with home base.

He had allotted several agents to the task of tracking down the person, but with no trace and the only lead they had being that the man spoke Russian and Lithuanian and possibly English, they hadn't had much progress. There were several people on the planet who could do that. It had been nearly three hours and his agents were putting nearly everything they had to give him _something_, but it wasn't enough. Blunt sipped his tea, staring ahead at the wall.

The fact that Scorpia knew where they were at all was unsettling. The idea that Scorpia had been able to get close enough to stage a raid was even more unsettling. The fact that it had been thirteen hours and there hadn't been a word from anyone about anything or anyone wasn't just unsettling…it was disturbing and unacceptable. Not that anyone really asked Blunt whether they deemed it unacceptable.

Blunt didn't like not having answers. He didn't like not knowing what was happening. He didn't like knowing how something happened. Not knowing meant that you couldn't counteract the problem, you couldn't come up with a solution.

Mrs. Jones blamed him for this entire situation. Blunt knew that. If he was being honest with himself, he would admit that he blamed himself for the situation as well.

But now was not the time for self-doubt. He straightened up as Maria's voice came on over the intercom, informing him he had a call as though the young woman would be able to see his slouching, somewhat defeated (somewhat, because Blunt never completely gives up) posture through the speaker.

"It's the Finder." Blunt frowned. It had only been a few hours and with nothing else to call him, the agents had come up with a nickname for him. Albeit, it was mocking at first, but it had stuck. Now they were going to find out if the Finder actually lived up to the name the agents had christened him with.

"Hello?"

"У меня есть его." That was all he said. That was all he needed to say. Blunt was already mentally putting a team together.

000

_One._

Jessie's breath came in quick gasps, trying to suppress her whimpers of pain. She ached all over, her muscles shaking without her control or say-so. Her fingers twitched as she curled around herself on the floor. Tears tracked down her face.

_Two._

It had hurt so bad. When she had woken up, they had dragged her out of the cell before she had even gotten a chance to look around properly. Groggy and not exactly aware of what was going on around, Jessie hadn't put up much resistance, hadn't even really taken notice was what was happening around her. She had noticed, however, when they had stripped her of her shirt and chained her against a metal grating, attaching a pad with wires to her side.

_Three._

She had never felt anything quite like it before. The one time she had accidentally stuck her finger in a socket didn't even compare to what she had felt back in that room. When the electricity had ripped through her, she wasn't expecting it. They'd given her no warning. They hadn't even spoken the entire time she was with them and that had scared her.

_Four._

Her screams had been ripped from her throat and she didn't even try to contain them. For one thing, she had no warning when they sent electricity coursing through her body. And the pain was too much. What was the point in trying to stop them? Now, though, her throat felt raw and bruised from screaming. Her breathing was ragged and harsh and there would be no relief from the pain. She desperately wanted a drink of water, but she didn't think they would be as hospitable as that.

_Five._

She whimpered, trying to move her spasming arms to lift her shirt up. She finally managed it, letting out a wrecked sob as the material moved over the burn. She bit her lip, enough to draw blood and forced herself to look at it. She moaned, her head falling back to hit the floor almost as soon as she saw the blackened skin. The floor felt cool against her sweaty skin and the last thing Jessie thought before her vision blacked out was _Snake needs to look at this._

000

_Six._

She resumed counting when she woke up. Ten seconds to panic was all she got. She felt calmer now, but her heart was still thundering and she wondered if it ever even slowed down while she was unconscious. She didn't have any desire to move, despite the burn that throbbed in time with her heart. She didn't look at it again, her stomach churning with the memory of the sight, instead moving her head to look at the glass.

_Seven._

The look on Snake's face was heartbreaking. It was tear-streaked and whoever said real men don't cry was an absolute liar, because to Jessie Snake was a real man. Way out of her age range and league, certainly, but when she was older, she wanted a man like him, if she and Alex didn't last but right now Alex was perfect.

_Eight._

She wasn't sure what it said about her that she had just been electrocuted several times, had a giant black burn on her side, was being held hostage and she was thinking about the kind of man she wanted to marry in the future, if she got out of this. She ought to be hyperventilating, but maybe she was going into shock. People did that when their bodies went through serious trauma, didn't they? Shock seemed like a reasonable explanation right now. Perhaps she needed a blanket.

_Nine._

She wondered where Luke was. She hoped he was somewhere nearby. Jessie let her eyes track over the cell, turning away from Snake. The overhead lights were bright and she squinted, tears jumping unwillingly to her eyes. She remembered back when her parents were alive and they would visit her Uncle Will, she and him would play the cinnamon challenge, except with cayenne peppers because she was determined to win it and she would always end up with her eyes watering and tears streaking down her face and her mum and dad would always get mad at him because she was only seven, but Uncle Will was a joker and he was of the opinion that if Jessie hadn't learned her lesson the first time around, then she could deal with the consequences.

Anyway, he had said, she's a stubborn one. When she wants something, she'll keep going till she gets it.

Jessie hoped MI6 remembered him when they were setting their families up with protection detail.

_Ten._

She turned back to face Snake, who was watching her carefully. She managed a small pained smile and shifted her body so she was no longer curled in a ball, but stretched out on her back. Her shirt was still up, exposing her midriff, but Jessie was beyond caring about modesty at this point. The floor was cool against her skin. It was nice to know that fact hadn't changed while she was unconscious. Or asleep. Or whatever. She could think about that all day.

She took a deep shuddering breath and closed her eyes. She could lie here all day if it meant that she wouldn't be bothered ever again. Unfortunately, it seemed like that wasn't going to happen anytime soon.

She hadn't even realized someone had opened the door, it was that silent until she felt a cool hand touch her face. She yelped, automatically jerking away from the touch and collapsing in a heap as a burning pain ripped through her side. The hand was back, along with three more and she clenched her eyes shut even more tightly, bracing herself for more pain and flinched when something cool touched her burn, her eyes flying open.

A man and woman were crouched over her, both silently working. They were wearing scrubs and a mask and she wondered if someone had called the ambulance and they were EMTs. She quickly shook that thought from her head. She and her group weren't that lucky. The man was rubbing a salve on her burn while the woman checked her pulse. Jessie craned her head to look at both of them and opened her mouth to speak, to ask what was going on when a voice spoke. It was a pleasant voice, the kind that one might use to record a book-on-tape, with a reassuring Irish lilt to it.

"They won't answer you so it's no use trying to talk to them," it said. She twisted her neck to look at the man speaking. He was a shorter man, at least, that was she thought. Everything looked tall when you were lying flat on the ground. He had neatly combed brown hair and he wore a white lab coat. Wire-rimmed spectacles saw precariously on his nose. He looked like a professor. Jessie was silent for a moment, contemplating the man in front of her. He looked harmless but she was in a cell after have been electrocuted who knew how long before. Her fingers were still twitching at any rate. She wasn't trusting him as far she could throw him.

"Who are you?" Jessie asked after deciding that getting directly to the point would be the best option. "Why won't they answer? Where are we? Where are the others? What's going on? Why-" The man held a hand impatiently and she fell silent.

"I guess it was a bit rude not to introduce myself," he answered. "I'm Dr. Oliver McKinley. I'm head researcher. These are my assistants, Grace and Boris. They work in our medical department." He paused. "Well…they did. But not anymore." He didn't seemed inclined to continue.

"You said they wouldn't answer. Why not?" McKinley smiled pleasantly, coming over to stand closer. Grace helped Jessie in a sitting position, holding her propped up while Boris began wrapping clean gauze around the burn.

"Because they can't," he replied. "Go on, Boris. Show her why you can't answer." Boris hesitated a moment before reach up and pulling the face mask down. He opened his mouth and she stared at it a moment, not quite processing what the problem was at first. Then it hit her.

"His tongue," she gasped. "It's –" Boris yanked his mask up back over his face. Jessie felt sick to her stomach. Sicker than when she had looked at the burn for the first time.

"Mm, yes," McKinley said idly. "He and Grace…for the longest time they weren't focusing on their duties. Kept getting distracted. I couldn't fathom what was wrong with them. Until I opened up the supply closet one day and found them going at it like a pair of animals. I like quiet, you know. And the noises they were making…it was simply _obscene_. So I took care of the problem. They no longer make noises and they no longer focus on anything except their work. It's ideal, really."

Jessie looked from Grace to Boris, who she now noticed were steadfastly not looking at each other. She let her gaze move to the cell across the corridor, anything to not look at McKinley, and focused on Snake, hoping the terror and horror she felt wasn't showing through. If the look on his face was anything to go by, it was.

"Now, then, " McKinley continued conversationally as if they were talking about the weather over tea instead of having someone's tongue cut out. Jessie's gaze jerked back to him. "According to your file, you've always been a quiet one, so you and I should get along quite nicely. Unfortunately, that doesn't get you out of earning your keep here." He waggled a finger at her playfully. "No, no. You'll be expected to participate like everyone else." Jessie stared at him in a combination of horror and disbelief. He was insane. Completely and utterly insane.

He reached down and patted her cheek. She flinched away from him. He didn't seem to notice and straightened back up.

"Grace will be along later to check on you," he told her. "Until then, try and relax a little bit." With that, he left, the two assistants following behind him. Jessie waited until the door was shut and she couldn't see them any more before lurching across the floor painfully and pressing her hand against the glass, trying to get as close to Snake as possible. Snake was leaning against the glass as well, his forehead leaning on it. Jessie crowded as close the glass as possible and started crying.

They were in the hands of a monster and there was nothing they could do.

000

If Kae had to listen to anymore hard rock, she was going to…well, she didn't know what she was going to do. She was curled up in a ball on the floor her cell, her hands clamped over her ears. That muffled the sound a little, but she could still feel the music thrumming through her body. This had been going on for who knew how long and she was close to screaming.

Her head hurt, was pounding in fact, enough for tears to be tracking down her face. She had her back to Eagle so he couldn't see, though she knew he was watching her and James. It hadn't taken long for her to figure out that her cell was the only one being affected and as soon as it had become unbearable, Kae had flipped over, curled up and squeezed her eyes shut, determined to try and block it out. It wasn't working very well and she let out a strangled sob. She couldn't even _hear_ herself. The only indication that she had even made a sound was the contortion of her face and the hitched breath.

Oh, God, how had this even happened?

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So, I really have no excuse for how long this took. I'd even had this written up and I had completely forgotten about it until I went to write the next chapter and was looking for inspiration and digging through older documents and found this.

So, I am sorry for being so inconsistent and thank you to those who have stuck with me so far!


	25. Chapter 25

This wasn't how this was supposed to go. Ben was leaning against the glass in a way that allowed him to see both Tom and Alex. He had managed to convey through gestures that the boys were next to each other and as soon as they had realized that, they had pressed themselves to the wall between them. That's where they both were now, curled up and Ben hoped they were sleeping. They had been like that for what felt like several hours and neither had moved.

He knew Wolf was to the right of him. Alex had managed to convey this by pointing and pretending to howl. Or maybe he really had howled. It's not as if Ben could tell. Snake was the right of him. That just left the question of where Eagle was. Ben knew he was nearby, but he couldn't go to his youngest teammate and check on him. It made Ben itch and he resisted the urge to pace or hit something.

And if this was how Ben was feeling, he couldn't imagine what it was doing to Wolf. It was likely driving the shorter man up the wall and Ben remembered one time they'd been overseas and held in a hostage situation when they had dragged Snake out. Wolf had been a nightmare then and it wasn't an experience that Ben had any desire to repeat.

Ben glanced across the corridor and saw Tom watching him with sleep-filled eyes. Ben gave him a small smile which Tom returned tentatively before tucking his head back into his arm and settling once more. At least someone was having a somewhat peaceful experience. Ben looked over at Alex, who was also watching him. He looked a bit more alert and Ben knew Alex wouldn't be so reassured with just a smile. In fact, Ben was sure Tom wouldn't be so easily placated but then Ben hadn't known the boy and while he could read the kids like a book, he also hadn't seen them in all aspects of their lives.

Not for the first time in his life, Ben wished he knew sign language. It would make communicating so much easier. To his surprise Alex gave him a small smile and Ben remembered belatedly that while Alex had been in these situations, he'd been in them alone and he was a child. Alex was a child and now he wasn't in a situation alone. So Ben returned the smile and mouthed 'go to sleep.' He was only mildly surprised when Alex nodded and settled back down. For all that Alex liked to be independent, he also liked to having someone with him.

000

"_We can't help you."_ Blunt felt no remorse for having used the stranger to get what he wanted. He had squashed any remorse for something like that long ago. After all, he didn't get to this position by being _honest._ The boy may have been clever, but he also hadn't gone up against a top government before. He hadn't gone up against the best intelligence branch and Blunt got to where he was by being the best. The best was not outsmarted by a boy.

"_Sorry."_ Blunt hoped that his voice conveyed just enough contempt mixed with sympathy to warn him off, to tell him stop playing with fire. Blunt wouldn't pursue him, but only if he stopped. When he laughed, though, it was the sound of someone who was desperate, but who also knew something Blunt didn't. Blunt didn't like that.

"_No, you're not, Mr. Blunt. Please don't insult my intelligence. But if you try to back out now, you will be."_

"_What do you mean?"_ There was a low chuckle and the best somehow found himself getting bested by a boy.

"_How are the families of our dear abductees? I imagine they're doing well. Scorpia certainly hasn't managed to find them. I wonder how much it would take to change that. What would that do the children, Mr. Blunt? They're already desperate, but just think of what could be spilled when their loved ones are tort-"_

"_Enough."_ The children didn't know enough to be dangerous, but the soldiers…the soldiers did. The soldiers were already in a precarious enough situation as it was. _"What do you have?"_ That was the only thing that could allow the boy to speak with such confidence in his voice, that he wasn't just taking a shot in the dark and guessing that the families were in protective custody, that they were children to begin with.

"_A disk, Mr. Blunt. With the names and locations of all active agents. Would be most unfortunate if it were to fall into the wrong hands, but I know a number of people who pay large sums of money for this."_

Bested, indeed. Blunt scowled.

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So, I realize this is really short, but I was getting really lazy and I really wanted to post the next chapter for this. Also, I realized if I stopped freaking out about chapter lengths, you guys would get updates more quickly and I could work more on advancing the plot and writing some other things that need to be written.

So! The chapters will more than likely be shorter, but I hope this will help me update more quickly.

Also, the italics indicate speaking in a foreign language, unless it's obvious that they're being used to emphasize something.

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